COVID-19 Detecting Dog Knows When You Have the Virus With 90% Accuracy

A new study recently showed that COVID-19 detecting dogs can identify more than 90 percent of COVID-19 infections even if a person is asymptomatic.

According to SciencAlert, through their research which is available in preprint in the London School of Hygiene &Tropical Medicine, the study authors are hoping they could help replace the necessity of quarantining new arrivals.

Through the use of their outstanding sense of smell, which pick up the correspondent of half a teaspoon of sugar in swimming pool, as big as the one used in the Olympics, dogs have already exhibited that they can sniff out illnesses like malaria, epilepsy and cancer.

A lot of previous research have shown proof-of-concept that these canines can detect COVID-19 infection. The London School of Tropical Medicine researchers wanted to find out if dogs could identify a unique odor emitted from chemical compounds linked to a person who is positive with the virus but does not present symptoms.

More Than 90 Percent of the Infection Detected

The researchers collected samples of face masks and clothing for those who had tested positive for either mild or symptomatic COVID-19 infection.

In addition, samples of socks of 200 COVID-19 cases were also collected and arranged in laboratory tests for six dogs that underwent training to specify either an existence or absence of the chemical compound.

There was a need for the dogs to be trained, not to determine the so-called "false positives," in an offer to hack their reward system and get treats eve if there were no samples of COVID-19 infection in a given test.

Meaning, said Claire Gest, from the Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases of the school, the dog completely understands and is given a reward for a correct negative, and a correct positive. In general, she added, the dogs were successfully able to detect up to 94 percent of the COVID-19 samples.

The study authors then demonstrated how effectively these success rates, incorporated with traditional PCR tests, could help in the detection of mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 cases.

As a result, the researchers discovered that using dogs to screen arrivals at stations like airports could detect 91 percent of the cases, leading to a 2.24 times lower transmission rate compared to, having PCR tests alone.

Faster Than Other COVID-19 Tests

The authors of this study which has yet to undergo peer review said, they are hoping it could ultimately replace the necessity for travelers to go through quarantine, which essentially disrupts each arrival even though most of those arriving are not positive with COVID-19.

The basic thing, according to James Logan, co-author of the study, is that these COVID-19-detecting dogs are substantially faster than other tests.

What the researchers are now suggesting is that dogs would provide the first initial screening, and then, such arrivals that were specified as positive would then get a free complimentary PCR test.

The team said, out of a plane filled with approximately 300 people who have just arrived, less than one present was statistically possible to be carrying the virus.

Under the present quarantine measures some countries are imposing, like the one the Australian Government's Health Department is implementing, all passengers would need to undergo quarantine, leading to substantial inconvenience.

However, given the trained dogs' sensitivity, a maximum of 35 individuals on board would be specified as positive, researchers wrote on their paper.

A similar report is shown on Arirang News' YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on COVID-19 on Science Times.