British researchers train dogs to detect signs of a Covid-19 infected person

In the past, there have been many studies to take advantage of the dog's highly sensitive sense of smell to detect human health-related risks including explosives, cancer or many other diseases. But can dogs' superficial sense of smell help people cope with the Covid-19 pandemic?

That is also the question of many scientists in the UK. Specifically, researchers at Durham University and experts from the London School of Tropical Medicine and Sanitation (LSHTM) and the Medical Detection Dogs Charitable Foundation tried dog training to detect people infected with Covid-19.

This is also the group of scientists who published research on how Spanish people use dogs to detect malaria-infected people in samples of infected children's socks in 2018.

The scientists hope this method will help health officials to detect patients early and prevent them in time, especially at airports or checkpoints.

Professor James Logan, Head of Disease Control at LSHTM, said our previous studies showed that dogs can detect odors from people infected with malaria with great accuracy.

"We know that other respiratory illnesses like Covid-19 can change body odor. So there's a good chance the dog will detect that, " says Logan . This is a new diagnostic tool and will revolutionize our reaction to Covid-19 in a short time, but it will become extremely important in Next few months".

One of the ways dogs can detect people infected with Covid-19 is subtle changes in human skin temperature. It will be an important sign of people with a fever.

According to the researchers, trained dogs can complement the screening of infected people. Dogs will even help screen up to 250 people per hour.

Researchers plan to use the same training methods used to detect people with cancer, Parkinson's and bacterial infections. Specifically, dogs will be exposed to patient samples and taught how to identify carriers.

Dr Claire Guest said: "In principle, we are sure dogs can detect Covid-19. Now we are looking at how to safely collect a patient's sample and give it to for dogs to detect ".

The purpose of the study was to use dogs to screen anyone, including those with Covid-19 but without symptoms. This is an important premise for the authorities to know who to check when screening. And obviously this method will be very quick and effective, limiting exposure and saving test kits when needed.