A DREADED bug has apparently arrived in West Dorset - and left its first victim fighting for his life.

Pensioner Peter Dunn, 73, says he was lucky to survive after apparently being attacked by the notorious Blandford Fly at his Walditch home.

He spent nearly four days on an intravenous drip - and says he owes his recovery to quick-thinking Bridport nurse Karl Wallace, who sent him for urgent hospital treatment.

Mr Dunn, a retired journalist, was in his garden when the unseen insect bit his upper right leg.

Thinking it was a mosquito he treated the area with bite spray but with little effect. Two days later he had an angry wound with a brown pea-sized patch in the middle of a three-inch swollen area.

Mild antibiotics prescribed by a GP failed to improve things and by Saturday the swelling was much worse, with an angry flush spreading across the skin.

Mr Dunn said: "Lis, my wife, insisted I go to the Bridport minor injuries unit for advice and I was seen by Mr Wallace who immediately diagnosed a serious problem.

"He rang Dorset County Hospital and advised them to admit me for intravenous treatment as soon as possible. Thank God he did - I owe him for that.

"He drew a marker circle around the infected area and by the time I saw a medic in Dorchester it had doubled. I was sent down to the emergency care service running a fever,. I was transferred to the emergency medicine unit and put on a drip-feed of high-grade antibiotics.

"This treatment continued day and night for three-and-a-half days.

"The duty medic who admitted me guessed that this was the work of the Blandford Fly but its existence seemed to be news, generally speaking, to most of the medical staff at the hospital.

"One of the nurses looked it up on the Internet and ran off a three-page description of the horrible little varmint and what it could do. I'm sure I'll never be able to repay those wonderful people for their round-the-clock care and I love them to bits."

Mr Dunn was finally given the all-clear 10 days after his ordeal began - but was warned to keep his powerful antibiotics close to hand for a while and keep a wary eye on his leg.

The Blandford Fly, which takes its name from the Dorset town where it breeds in abundance, is small and black and its larvae breed in the reed beds of slow flowing river Stour. When the fly emerges the female seeks a blood meal before mating.

It usually bites the lower legs causing pain and swelling after which secondary infections can set in.

In 1988 more than 1,400 local people were hospitalised.

Since the use of biodegradable organic pesticides sprayed on to reed beds there has been a big reduction in the number of cases.