Jasper is one of the medical detection dogs being trained to sniff out coronavirus
Jasper is described as 'eccentric' and 'super-focused'
Posted on 04/17/2020 8:56:25 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A leading dog charity has teamed up with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Durham University to train six coronavirus sniffer dogs
Dogs could be hired by the NHS to screen up to 750 key workers an hour for coronavirus.
Medical detection dogs have already been used to sniff out cancer, Parkinson’s, and malaria.
But a new collaboration between a dog charity and two leading universities could see pooches trained to diagnose coronavirus patients.
Professor James Logan of the London school of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said six dogs are ready to be trained.
The dogs will be given samples of fabric worn by coronavirus patients to see if there is a unique odour they can detect.
Dr Claire Guest, CEO and founder of the Medical Detection Dogs charity, said: “There have already been so many fantastic achievements in the dogs’ work to detect human disease, and I believe they can be trained to sniff out Covid-19.
“When resources and testing kits are low, hundreds of people can’t be tested in one go. But the dogs can screen up to 750 people really quickly. By identifying those who need to be tested and self-isolate, they can stop the spread.
“They offer a fast, effective and non-invasive way to ensure limited NHS testing resources are used only where they are really needed. The dogs can help make a profound impact on the spread of this deadly disease. Their ability is incredible.”
Professor Logan said: “The first thing we need to do is establish whether there is a distinct odour from Covid-19 and if dogs can detect it. We need samples to do that.
“The two main samples we need are face masks and nylons, as nylon is a very good matrix for collecting odour.
“We have to follow protocols with the samples, as they are highly infectious and we need to ensure they’re safe.
“We know that other respiratory diseases change our body odour, and if there is a distinct odour, we are confident the dogs will detect it.
“We’ve done a lot of work with the dogs detecting malaria and found a high level of accuracy – above the World Health Organisation standards for a diagnostic."
will someone named joe teach em how to sniff?
“sniffer dogs” is what a once-great country with a failing socialized medical system is reduced to when it spends all of it’s testing money on buying millions of faulty chinese C-19 tests that don’t work and has no ability to quickly develop their own national testing system for C-19 ...
Dogs are more hi tech than any medical device out there. For example, they are the only way to detect seizures in advance. Anywhere.
How long until the “I hate filthy dogs” guy shows up?
The thing is, a dog would happily rescue that guy too.
These critters are just so amazing. They are an amazing gift.
Reminds me of my wife. Only wetter nose.....
Dogs would be faster than a 15 min Abbott test.
Here’s the US problem though, if dogs were doing the work, the Task Force couldn’t talk to us about swabs for 30 minutes a day.
You are lucky to have a wife that loyal.
As if he’d deserve it.
See?
There’s just no end to upsides of this!
:D
Could.
Great news
Thanks for posting
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