Strictly Come Dancing reality star and influencer rushed to hospital as she fears she has ‘tropical disease’

The 24-year-old, who is also an influencer, Youtuber and podcast host, sparked concerns among her loyal fanbase for her health when she took to Instagram to share that she has been in the hospital.

Posting a photo of her laid up in bed earlier today (Thursday October 3), she wrote: “Thank you so much for all your well wishes, after a week I finally feel somewhat normal again. The doctors thought I’d caught a tropical disease from a mosquito when I was away.” The star has spent the last two weeks in the Maldives and has been sharing a series of bikini photos and beach videos with her 1.8 milluion followers.

Malaria is a common but serious infection spread by mosquitoes, according to the NHS, and symptoms can appear six to 10 days after being bitten. If it's not diagnosed and treated quickly, you can die from it. Barker continued: “I had all the symptoms being, rashes all over my body, headache, body aches, shooting pains in my body, temperature, sore throat and ears etc.”

In a follow-up post in her Instagram Stories, she shared an image of a needle in her arm at the hospital, and confirmed she didn’t have malaria. “After getting my bloods taken turns out I didn’t have that but my white blood cells were half the number they should be so very low and therefore my whole body was trying to fight the infection,” Barker explained, as she then shared a video of the rash on her arms. “This is what the rashes looked like all over my body.”

A short time later, she then posted another photo of her arm, which was taken in the bath, where she said she was finally on the road to recovery. “Today is the first day I have woken up and they are settling so feeling grateful,” she wrote.

It’s not the first time she’s been in hospital this year, as she had an accident while skiiing during a family holiday in January which left her 'screaming in pain'. In a video uploaded to her Instagram page at the time she spoke in detail about the accident and she admitted that she had been frightened she was going to lose the use of her leg.

Barker became the first female social media star to appear on the BBC One show in 2019, following in the footsteps of Joe Suggs who competed in 2018, and she was partnered with AJ Pritchard. She originally shot to fame through her YouTube channel, and boasts more than two million subscribers on the platform.