Ambulance technician Christine White is recovering in a hospital isolation ward after contracting a mystery illness in Gambia while on a mercy mission.

The 24-year-old collapsed at home just a day after returning from the African country. She was shaking, had a rapid pulse and a high temperature.

Christine, who is in St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, was discharged soon afterwards and spent last weekend with her family but was fainting and incoherent and taken back to hospital on Monday.

She has undergone extensive tests. She was also severely dehydrated and has received seven bags of fluid via a drip.

She was bitten more than 100 times all over her body by a mosquito and a sandfly but blood cultures have not shown she has contracted any disease from the bites. It is not known what has caused her illness.

Christine, 24, who is based at Chichester Ambulance Station, was one of a team of six Sussex Ambulance staff who flew out to Gambia for a week at the beginning of December as part of a project aimed at passing on medical techniques used by ambulance staff in Britain to crews there.

She said: "It hasn't put me off. It was absolutely fantastic and brilliant but at some points devastating, but I would definitely go back."

The week-long trip was the culmination of a four-year dream for Sussex Ambulance paramedic Martin Lewis who dedicated himself to getting a team together to make such a journey after visiting the country in 1996.

During his holiday he visited an ambulance station and talked to staff who were desperate for training and resources. He returned determined to help the country and drew up a plan to help the Gambian Ambulance Service and presented it to the Executive Board of the Sussex Ambulance Service.

With the backing of the service and its staff medical supplies were sent out to Gambia together with obsolete equipment collected from all 25 Sussex ambulance stations.

The crew spent the week in temperatures of up to 35 degrees centigrade teaching the Gambian staff resuscitation techniques, how to treat people with spinal injuries and other medical techniques such as bandaging.

Christine also gave talks on HIV and Aids where, despite being rife in the country, very few people appeared to be aware of the disease or how to prevent it.

She said she is determined to return to the country so she can be of further assistance.