Scent detection dogs can sniff out coronavirus
As if we don't know they are wonderful already, the pandemic has given us more proof that dogs are indeed the man's best friend. There have been numerous cases of dogs helping snif out the coronavirus around the world.
Recent studies have confirmed that scent detection dogs can be taught to identify individuals with covid infection from their swabs. In an experiment conducted at Finland’s Helsinki-Vantaa International airport, the accuracy of dogs detecting the samples correctly was a whopping 92 - 97 percent!
The coronavirus pandemic is here to stay, for no one knows how long. In this ongoing battle, our fur babies are helping us fight this battle side by side.
The rapid and accurate identification and isolation of patients with active infection is an important aspect of fighting the global pandemic. This is especially important to detect and identify in international airports, to control the spread and exposure of new variants. The current detection and diagnosis are based on a PCR test that can accurately identify coronavirus from other pathogens. But this doesn’t come in handy when we want to conduct large-scale detection and requires a certain degree of faith in individuals themselves.
Proof of Concept of this was carried out in Finland’s Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport, where covid sniffing dogs are employed in 2020. Similar experiments were carried out at Miami International airport and multiple schools in Massachusetts.
Some interesting facts from this study
1. Dog’s sense of smell is much more powerful than humans. This is explained by their big nose, and the underlying brain structure dedicated to the sense of smell. For the same reason, dogs are also employed in law enforcement in departments such as narcotics and explosives.
2. Dogs can detect virus-related compounds from the sweat of long COVID patients for up to 18 months after they first caught the infection. Scientific journal published here.
3. Dogs are as reliable as PCR tests in detecting COVID cases, and maybe even better than PCR tests in identifying cases with a lower level of infection. An additional bonus to this is they are much cuter and less invasive than swab tests.
4. Dogs are the ultimate technology in the fast detection of covid tests. Even the best PCR tests take up to 24 hours. A rapid Antigen test can take up to 2 hours. Dogs can sniff it out in a matter of seconds. They are our nature-gifted, biological sensors.
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