Towie Star Joey Essex Fears Rabies After Monkey Bite

I'm a celebrity star Joey Essex feared he may have contracted rabies after being bitten by a monkey on a recent trip to South Africa.

The reality star, who is currently visiting Africa to film his new show Educating Joey Essex, was nipped by the one-year-old primate on the first episode of the series which aired on Sunday night.

"The monkey bit my arm, man! Why did he bite me for? What a liberty!" the 23-year-old shrieked after the encounter.

Although there was no blood, the former Towie personality sought medical attention to find out if he had contracted the viral disease.

"If I got rabies, how long would that last for?" he anxiously asked the doctor.

But his worries were soon laid to rest when the medic replied "I don't think you have rabies".

The monkey drama is not the first time Essex has experienced a health scare on the show, narrated by This Morning host Phillip Schofield.

He previously claimed that even before he got on the plane for the fly-on-the-wall series, he had started sleepwalking and suffered hallucinations after getting his vaccinations.

"I had ­hallucinations. One of them was I was being eaten by gorillas, which was scary," he said.

"I kept waking after strange dreams wondering why glasses had been knocked over. A week later, I realised I'd been sleepwalking because of the nine injections I had."