A GWENT bank worker died from a rare liver infection contracted while she trained call centre staff in India, an inquest heard.

Lucy Wilson, 23, was taken ill with flu-like symptoms less than three weeks after returning from Mumbai and died from hepatitis E and liver failure three days later, Birmingham Coroner's Court was told.

The financial administrator, of Hornbeam Walk, Newport, had travelled to the sub-continent with the insurance division of Lloyds TSB, based at the city's Tredegar Park.

She had visited her GP two days after her return to Wales on November 13 last year with concerns about a slight cut on a toe she suffered standing on a broken bottle during a night out in Mumbai.

Her family initially believed the laceration may have had something to do with her illness but were told by a medical expert at yesterday's hearing that the wound had had nothing to do with it.

Over the following weeks, Miss Wilson developed flu-like symptoms and was eventually admitted to Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny on December 4.

She was rushed to the specialist liver unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham within 24 hours where specialists worked to establish the cause of her liver failure.

It was not until after Miss Wilson's death that test results confirmed she had contracted hepatitis E.

Consultant Dr Douglas Thorburn explained to Miss Wilson's family, who were in court for the inquest, that the infection was spread orally from contaminated sewage.

The expert said: "It's not an infection we see very frequently in this part of the world but it's in the community in parts of the world and in India and South East Asia it's an endemic infection."

Dr Thorburn said there was no vaccine and no treatment for the infection which took between three and eight weeks to develop.

Recording a verdict of death by natural causes, the deputy coroner for Birmingham Christopher Ball said some aspects of the case would remain a "mystery".

During the hearing, Miss Wilson's mother Jayne told the court: "Lucy wasn't a silly girl. She has been abroad before a lot of times. She knew not to drink water, she knew about ice in drinks, she wasn't the type to take a chances so how this has occurred I really don't know."

Following the inquest, her father Julian told waiting reporters he and his family were relieved to finally know the cause of Lucy's death.

The 52-year-old, who was accompanied by his other daughter Sian, his son Ben, and Miss Wilson's fiance Ognian Stoilov, said: "We are relieved that we found out.

"We didn't know she died from hepatitis E until we found out when we came here today."