UK researchers have decided to train dogs to be able to sniff out people who may potentially be carriers of COVID-19.
Researchers of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Durham University are collaborating to find out if they can train dogs to detect COVID-19.
Dogs with a highly developed sense of smell are already used to diagnose many medical conditions, including Parkinson’s disease and several types of cancer.
They have also been trained to detect malaria in patients. They are also able to detect subtle changes in temperature of the skin, so could potentially tell if someone has a fever, which is a symptom of COVID-19.
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They believe that dogs can be trained to sniff out subtle odors produced by the virus. If this research comes out successful, it could revolutionize the rate at which patients with COVID-19 are detected.
The team has begun preparations to intensively train dogs so they could be ready in six weeks to help provide a rapid, non-invasive diagnosis towards the tail end of the epidemic.
Professor James Logan, who is the Head of the Department of Disease Control at LSHTM and Director of ARCTEC said: “Our previous work demonstrated that dogs can detect odours from humans with a malaria infection with extremely high accuracy – above the World Health Organization standards for a diagnostic.
“It’s early days for COVID-19 odour detection. We do not know if COVID-19 has a specific odour yet, but we know that other respiratory diseases change our body odour so there is a chance that it does. And if it does dogs will be able to detect it. This new diagnostic tool could revolutionise our response to COVID-19.”
Once trained, dogs could also be used at ports of entry to identify travellers entering the country infected with the virus or be deployed in other public spaces.