A new study claims that dog owners who run their pooches are 78% more likely to come down with COVID-19.
According to a letter in the Journal of Environmental Research, researchers at the University of Granada surveyed 2,086 people about their daily habits during an epidemic to assess the risk of various activities.
They found that people who walked their dogs had a significant chance of catching the virus – a 78% higher risk than the average person.
Meanwhile, having cats or other types of pets does not appear to increase the risk of anyone becoming infected with the virus, the researchers said.
“These results point to living with dogs as a risk factor for COVID-19 infection,” the researchers wrote.
The report says that more research is needed to determine whether natives play a direct role in the spread of the virus, indicating that there is a need for more research into the indications of “high infectious disease in dog owners.”
Although there is no conclusive research that human transmission from dog to dog infection is possible, researchers suggest that poachers can spread the virus by touching contaminated surfaces in public and then running microbes into their owner’s home.
Professor Christina Sanchez Gonzalez, one of the study’s authors, said dog owners should take extra care to practice good hygiene, the Sun reports.
He added that decisions to close areas such as playgrounds when dog-like areas were able to remain open “did not make sense”.
“Between epidemics and in the absence of effective treatment or vaccines, preventive hygiene measures are the only relief, and these measures should also be applied to dogs, which, according to our study, appear to be increasing directly or indirectly. The risk of contracting the virus,” he said.
.
