The government's plan to relax quarantine restrictions has been broadly welcomed. But does it put the UK at risk of rabies? Mary Carr reports on the disease-virtually eradicated here for 100 years

PRINCESS Banlusirisam, a grand daughter of the king of Thailand was only 14 years old in 1912 when she was bitten by a mad dog. Her father was worried but the boat from Bangkok to Vietnam, the nearest source of anti-rabies vaccine, had just left and the next was a fortnight away.