Does Corona smell so dogs can distinguish the infected?



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More than 10 years of research in medical examination dogs has shown that they can train to smell disease with an accuracy equivalent to one tablespoon of sugar dissolved in two Olympic swimming pools.

With the outbreak of the new Corona virus, it is no longer uncommon for dogs and their olfactory power to be used to detect Corona patients at airports or in public places.

A new study reported that dogs can be trained to discover the person with the epidemic by smelling human sweat, since it is assumed that many countries around the world will discover the possibilities of using dogs as a fast, reliable and relatively inexpensive way to to pre-examine people under Corona, or to conduct a quick examination under circumstances. Certain, like airports.

The United Arab Emirates was the first in the world to apply the detection of Covid 19 with police dogs, as the authorities added this step in the country’s airports to contribute as a new line of defense in the detection of potential infected with the emerging virus. Corona, to be the first country in the world to be successful in the actual application of this experiment.

And in the UK, a team from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is training 6 dogs in the hope that they will be able to detect people infected with Coronavirus, even if they do not show any symptoms.

In Finland, a group of police dogs trained to detect Covid-19 began work at Helsinki airport in September, in an attempt to identify those infected with the virus.

In the details, researchers based in France and Lebanon took underarm sweat samples from 177 patients from 4 hospitals in Paris and one in Beirut. There were 95 positive and 82 negative results.

In the new study, the researchers said it is important that the positive and negative samples come from the hospital itself, so that the dogs do not perceive a specific “hospital odor.”

Using some sweat samples, the researchers trained 14 dogs who were working to detect explosives or detect colon cancer, in order to participate in the study.

The study scientists also did not use any of the trained dogs to discover illegal drugs because there is an unlikely possibility that the patients had used prohibited substances, and they asked the animals to discover sweat samples with a positive result for Covid-19. , in a group that contained negative or false samples. .

During the test period, the dogs performed dozens of experiments, with a success rate ranging from 76% to 100%. Two samples from individuals that tested negative were also repeatedly identified by two dogs.

The result was that these individuals were tested after reporting to hospitals, testing positive in subsequent tests, until the study said that if trained dogs could correctly distinguish between Coronavirus-infected individuals from others, it should not be considered an ideal test, but rather a complementary tool.

The researchers said the study was a “promising first step” in providing some evidence that dogs could detect people with a crown through sweat samples.

Additionally, this study also has some limitations, especially since the sweat samples were reused and the dogs may have been able to retain their scent, but the scientists don’t think memory played a role, which is why the scientists said that need more research.

The study indicated that dogs were infected with the Corona virus in some cases. However, there is little evidence that it plays a significant role in its spread, according to the US Centers for Disease Control.

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