This reminder comes after a UK resident sadly died after becoming infected with rabies following a cat bite during a visit to Morocco. There is no risk to the wider public in relation to this case but, as a precautionary measure, health workers and close contacts are being assessed and offered vaccination when necessary.

Rabies is passed on through injuries such as bites and scratches from an infected animal. There are no documented instances of direct human to human transmission.

Rabies does not circulate in either wild or domestic animals in the UK, although some species of bats can carry a rabies-like virus. Human rabies is extremely rare in the UK. No human cases of rabies acquired in the UK from animals other than bats have been reported since 1902. A single case of human rabies acquired from a bat was reported in 2002 in Scotland; this individual had sustained a number of bat bites. 5 cases of human rabies associated with animal exposures abroad occurred between 2000 and 2017.

Rabies is common in other parts of the world, especially in Asia and Africa. All travellers to rabies affected countries should avoid contact with dogs, cats and other animals wherever possible, and seek advice about the need for rabies vaccine prior to travel.

Anyone who has been bitten, scratched, or licked by an animal in a country with rabies, or has had direct contact with a bat in this country, should take immediate action by washing the wound or site of exposure with plenty of soap and water. Local medical advice should be sought without delay, even in those who have been previously vaccinated.

When given promptly after an exposure, a course of rabies vaccine is extremely effective at preventing the disease. If such an exposure occurs abroad, the traveller should also consult their doctor on return, so that the course of rabies treatment can be completed. If travellers have not sought medical advice abroad, they should contact their doctor promptly upon return for assessment.

Dr Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisations at PHE said:

This is an important reminder of the precautions people should take when travelling to countries where rabies is present. If you are bitten, scratched or licked by an animal you must wash the wound or site of exposure with plenty of soap and water and seek medical advice without delay.

There is no risk to the wider public in relation to this case but, as a precautionary measure, health workers and close contacts are being assessed and offered vaccination when necessary.

For more information on the risk of rabies in different countries, see the country information pages on the National Travel Health Network and Centre’s (NaTHNaC’s) website, TravelHealthPro.

For more general information about rabies, see the NHS website.

For more information about the risk of rabies in bats in the UK see PHE’s information for individuals who have been bitten by bats.

Rabies is a very serious viral infection that affects the brain and central nervous system. It is called a ‘zoonotic’ infection, which means it passes from animals to humans. The virus is transmitted to humans through animal bites, and can’t spread through physical contact or airborne means in the way that other zoonotic infections can.

This means it does not spread from human to human. Despite around 59,000 cases of rabies globally each year, there has yet to be a single confirmed case of human-to-human transmission, with the rare exception of when tissue or organs from a person who has died from rabies have been transplanted into another person.

Initial symptoms can include anxiety, headaches and fever. As the disease progresses, there may be hallucinations and respiratory failure. Spasms of the muscles used for swallowing make it difficult for the patient to drink. The incubation period between being infected and showing symptoms is between 3 and 12 weeks, depending on the site of the initial infection.

Once symptoms have developed, rabies is almost always fatal.

The UK has been rabies-free since the beginning of the 20th century, with the exception of rabies-like viruses in some wild bat species. The last recorded rabies case in the UK was in 2012. In that instance, the individual was bitten by a dog in South Asia.

Hemant Patel was born and educated in London before graduating from the University of Manchester having studied Physics with Astrophysics. He then moved into industry to train as a chartered management accountant.

He has worked at various multi-national companies including Mars Inc and SC Johnson in financial, commercial and marketing roles before moving with his family to Yorkshire to join Asda in 2003. At Asda, Hemant carried out various roles in finance including Commercial Finance Director and Retail Finance Director as well as running Asda’s own label business and leading business reinvention as Director of Strategy.

Hemant then moved on to be Director of Online at the financial service provider, Provident Financial plc, with responsibility for their online loans businesses. Latterly he was Finance Director of the Pub Co at Greene King plc, leading the finance function for the business’s 1,700 managed pubs. He has just become Finance Director of Premier Inn and Restaurants at Whitbread plc.

Until 2017, Hemant was chairman of Interplay Theatre, a Leeds based company using the arts to work with children in special schools nationally and socially excluded children locally. He was given the Arts and Business Individual of the Year award in 2007 for his work with this charity.

Hemant was lead non-executive director and is Chairman of the Royal Armouries Trading and Enterprises Ltd Board as well as the Royal Armouries Audit and Finance and Capital Development Committees. He became a trustee of the Royal Armouries in July 2010.

This appointment has been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election. Hemant has declared no such political activity.

Marcus Harling

Marcus Harling is an experienced lawyer who specialises in the procurement and construction of capital projects and real estate development. A Partner in the independent law firm Burges Salmon LLP, Marcus advises public and private sector bodies on a wide spectrum of strategic development, regeneration and transport infrastructure projects throughout London and beyond.

Recently, Marcus has advised The Crown Estate on the construction of Central London development schemes, The Greater London Authority on the Royal Albert Dock regeneration project and AEG/Crosstree Real Estate Partners on the construction of the Icon retail scheme at The O2.

Marcus has a particular interest in the interface between art and architecture and in the challenge of aligning the construction and development sector with the opportunities that the digital world presents. A member of the Steering Group of industry body Constructing Excellence and an advisor to the RIBA, Marcus has also worked across a wide range of cultural and heritage projects.

Professor Shearer West

Shearer West is President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham, having held previous academic and leadership positions at the Universities of Leicester, Birmingham, Oxford and Sheffield, as well as having been Director of Research at the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

She has held two visiting Fellowships at Yale University. She has published nine authored and edited books on eighteenth-, nineteenth- and twentieth-century European art, including The Image of the Actor, Italian Culture in Northern Europe in the Eighteenth Century, and Portraiture.

She has had extensive international experience as a consultant and advisor, including as a jurist on the Spinoza Awards (Netherlands), chairing the national research evaluation exercise for humanities in Norway and advising the Australian Research Council on the introduction of impact into their research assessment exercise.

West has held a number of Board positions, including Chair of the Association of Art Historians (now the Association for Art History), Visitor at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, member of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art Advisory Council, and member of the Independent Schools’ Governing Body for the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI in Birmingham.

Jonathan Yeo

Jonathan Yeo (b. London 1970) is one of the world’s leading portrait artists and has exhibited widely in both the UK and abroad. His sitters include such diverse figures as Sir David Attenborough, Malala Yousafzai, Damien Hirst, Grayson Perry, Idris Elba, Nicole Kidman, Baroness Lawrence, Tony Blair and The Duke of Edinburgh. Known for both traditional and experimental portraiture, he was the subject of a mid-career survey at the National Portrait Gallery in 2013 and has had further retrospectives at the Lowry in Greater Manchester (2014), the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle (2014-15) and the Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle in Denmark (2016).

Yeo has been working with a number of technology companies to explore new ways of making portraits and has been helping Google develop 3D drawing software for virtual reality. Earlier this year, Yeo exhibited a new series of works at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, including the first bronze sculpture to be made using an innovative combination of processes, in particular 3D scanning, virtual reality and 3D printing. Other recent projects include collaborations with the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC and The Bowes Museum in County Durham. Last month he was named Artist of the Year at GQ Magazine’s “Men of the Year” awards.

This appointment has been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election. Marcus, Shearer and Jonathan have declared no such political activity.

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The Welsh Secretary will visit Heronsbridge School in Bridgend to launch the Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning programme in Wales