New Delhi: A group of researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Medical Detection Dogs and Durham University are working to find out if dogs can help detect coronavirus patients.
The LSHTM news says: “The goal is that dogs can examine anyone, including those who are asymptomatic, and tell us if they need to be tested. This would be quick, effective and non-invasive and would ensure that the limited NHS test resources are only used where they are really needed. “Dr. Claire Guest, CEO and co-founder of Medical Detection Dogs
Dogs looking for COVID 19 are trained just like dogs to detect cancer, Parkinson’s or bacterial diseases – by sniffing samples into the training room and showing which one contains the disease or infection. While it is not known whether COVID-19 has a particular smell, other respiratory diseases cause changes in body odor, so the likelihood of COVID-19 doing the same is also possible.
Professor James Logan, head of the disease control department at LSHTM and director of ARCTEC, says: “Our previous work has shown that dogs can detect smells from people with a malaria infection with extremely high accuracy – above the World Health Organization standards for diagnosis. “Read the article submitted by LSHTM.
If the research is successful, the researchers believe that the dogs could supplement the ongoing tests by searching for the virus accurately and quickly, and possibly up to 19 people an hour. These COVID – 19 detection dogs can be used at airports at the end of the epidemic to quickly identify people who carry the virus.
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