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  • Tue. Nov 5th, 2024

From sniffer dogs to sewage testing, scientists are finding new ways to detect COVID-19

Byindianadmin

Aug 5, 2020 #Covid-, #detect
From sniffer dogs to sewage testing, scientists are finding new ways to detect COVID-19

Right now if we want to know how many people have COVID-19, we have one primary tactic: individual testing.

It’s resource-intensive, inconvenient — and hamstrung by the notion that everyone will have symptoms and act on them.

So with the World Health Organisation warning there may never be a “silver bullet” for COVID-19, scientists are investigating more creative tactics to keep tabs on the virus.

Enter dogs, drones and sewage testing.

Let’s take a look at how Australian researchers are exploring these less traditional tracing systems and how close we are to implementing them.

Canine disease detectives

A dog smells a sample of malaria

Freya is being re-trained to detect COVID-19 in the UK. Here she is correctly identifying a positive sample of malaria.(Getty: Leon Neal)

In just a couple of months, the first Australian detection dogs will be fully trained in how to detect the odour of COVID-19.

Dogs’ powerful sense of smell has already been used to sniff out cancer and Parkinson’s disease. Initial research conducted in France shows they can also reliably recognise someone with COVID-19.

They do this by smelling what’s known as COVID-19 Volatile Olfactory Compounds (VOCs), emitted through human sweat. VOCs are produced by your body all the time but their smell changes ever so slightly if you are positive for COVID-19.

And don’t worry, you don’t have to be sweaty, or even that close, for the dogs to pick up on it.

Anne-Lise Chaber, a veterinarian and expert in disease detection at the University of Adelaide, said some dogs have shown 100 per cent accuracy.

“Say someo

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