Turns Out Dogs Are Very Good At Sniffing Out COVID-19
A study undertaken in Germany has discovered dogs can be trained to sniff out COVID-19 in humans with 96% accuracy.
The world is a scary place right now for a number of reasons. One of the main reasons is the virus that is still rampant despite people trying to return to normal. What makes COVID-19 particularly scary is how little we know about it. Scientists and doctors around the world are desperately trying to discover an effective vaccine as you read this.
Any new information about COVID-19 is welcomed by all with open arms right now. Whether that information is in relation to who it affects most, the different ways in which the virus attacks the body, and most important of all, how to defend against it and cure the disease should it be contracted.
In terms of detection, researchers in Hannover, Germany may have discovered a method that has been staring us in the face. Using dogs to detect the virus in humans. That might sound crazy to some, but dogs' sense of smell is so remarkable that they can be trained to sniff out various illnesses and diseases. The researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover put that to the test when it comes to COVID-19.
The results so far have been incredibly promising. Eight sniffer dogs were trained to smell out the virus in samples of human saliva and phlegm. After just a week, the eight pups were able to tell the difference between infected and non-infected samples with 96% accuracy. The complete results included 1,157 correct indications of positive, 792 correct rejections of negative, and around 63 incorrect indications or rejections.
The research is still in its early stages, but this is a very promising start. Also, as touched upon above, this isn't the first time dogs have been used to sniff out illnesses in humans. Dogs have between 200 and 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses. To put that into perspective, humans have just five million, which goes some way to explaining why dogs have a much better sense of smell than we do. So much better that their noses may be a useful tool in the fight against COVID-19.
Source: IFL Science
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