Virus debilitating

walk, even on the giving surface of the sand, her feet hurt so much.

Six weeks later and Mrs Pallpratt’s husband still has to help her shower and dress.

She can’t lift her arms to put clothes on, let alone do her usual horse riding or even just hang the clothes on the line.

‘‘I came home and went work,’’ Mrs Pallpratt said. to

‘‘Then I could barely walk, couldn’t get out of bed. I just couldn’t put my feet on the ground. I would just collapse.

‘‘Then my knees, I couldn’t bend my knees because they were all inflamed.’’

When she first went to her local GP, he thought she might have rheumatoid arthritis.

But she knew it had struck too quickly and a blood test con- firmed she had contracted Ross River fever.

‘‘I wasn’t sick, I didn’t have a fever,’’ she said.

‘‘He said wait for two weeks, it might go away.

‘‘But then on the Monday I couldn’t get out of bed. Dean (her husband) had to lift me out of bed.’’

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