The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has said that second person is being tested for rabies in the UK, just two days after it confirmed a case of the illness in a patient.

The first case was of a patient who was bitten by a dog in South Asia. The woman, who is believed to be in her 50’s, was reportedly sent back twice by doctors at Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford, Kent before she was diagnosed with the illness.

She first approached the A&E department about two weeks ago but was diagnosed only after she was referred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, and then transferred to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London. She is now being treated at London's Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

The HPA did not announce the name or other details of the second person, who is being tested for the disease. “There is another person being looked at. There are eight people this year who have been through this process,” said a spokeswoman of HPA.

The disease is generally transferred through saliva from the bite of an infected animal, most commonly a dog. There are tens of thousands of rabies cases each year worldwide but there have not been any documented cases of human-to-human infection.

Dr Brian McCloskey, director of the HPA for London said that there is into risk to the other patients or visitors as a result of the case.