One of the more frightening realities of the novel corona virus is that one out of every four carriers don’t know they have it. Distinguished health organizations and epidemiologists agree that one key to controlling our current pandemic is to identify those elusive “silent carriers.”
COVID-19 testing efforts are ramping up, but access remains spotty. Some companies have developed home testing kits but are sparring with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over their approval. Last Monday, the FDA authorized the first home test.
Scientists in London are betting on a friendly, non-invasive solution to sleuthing out corona in covert carriers and those with suspicious symptoms: a dog’s nose.
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Durham University are crowdfunding a project to train canines to “sniff out” COVID-19 in people who’ve not yet developed symptoms — or never do.
A dog’s olfactory glands are legendary. There are upwards of 300 million receptors in a dog’s nose compared to about six million in ours. Moreover, the area in a dog’s brain devoted to the analysis of smells is roughly 40 times more acute than the corresponding area in a human brain. In one study, a medical alert dog detected one teaspoon of sugar dissolved in five million liters of water — enough to fill two olympic-sized swimming pools.
Certain dog breeds have more receptors and a larger olfactory hard drive than others. Also, some dogs are scent-sensitive to human maladies. Prodigious pups have helped diagnose Parkinson’s Disease, bacterial infections and various cancers and have saved many a diabetic from going into shock.
Researchers at LSHTM hypothesize that Labrador retrievers and Cocker Spaniels — already homed in on the unique scent of malaria — could also be trained to sniff out COVID-19. The center claims that the dogs’ success rate with malaria far exceeds World Health Organization (WHO) standards.
James Logan, head of LSHTM’s Department of Disease Control, is cautiously optimistic: “It’s in the early stages,” Logan told Bloomberg News. “We know diseases have odors — including respiratory diseases such as influenza — and that these odors are, in fact, quite distinct. There’s a very, very good chance that COVID-19 has a specific odor, and, if it does, I am really confident that the dogs would be able to learn that smell and detect it.”
If COVID-19 indeed emits a unique scent, a “non-infectious” sample would be extracted and placed in a small container among several other containers (with or without scents) in an enclosed room. A canine trainee then surveys the various scents with the goal of identifying the target. The dogs would then be tasked with detecting that same scent in a person. Since COVID-19 is transmitted human-to-human (companion animals could only acquire the virus if exposed to specific wild animals in certain regions), there is no danger to the dogs.
If training is successful, mutt patrols could be dispatched throughout England to detect covert COVID-carriers by summer. Canines would be a part of hospitals’ daily screening ritual for staff. With the potential for screening thousands of passengers per day, they could also prove to be a potent medical arsenal at rail stations and airports once travel resumes in England. A wave of tail-wagging detectives might then fan the globe in preparation for the pandemic’s anticipated second wave.
Here’s to the next “British Invasion!”