Medical Detection Dogs could sniff out COVID-19
The Medical Detection Dogs charity hopes it will be able to train dogs to sniff out Covid-19 and play a vital role in preventing further spread of the pandemic in future.
The Charity trains dogs to find diseases such as cancer, Parkinson’s disease and malaria from the odour given off by people who may not be showing any symptoms. This is invaluable in their early detection. Dr Claire Guest, chief executive and co-founder of Medical Detection Dogs has said:
“In principle, we’re sure that dogs could detect Covid-19. We are now looking into how we can safely catch the odour of the virus from patients and present it to the dogs. The aim is that dogs will be able to screen anyone, including those who are asymptomatic and tell us whether they need to be tested. This would be fast, effective and non-invasive and make sure the limited NHS testing resources are only used where they are really needed.”
The charity is working in partnership with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Durham University and has set up a crowd funding initiative.
The Plumbers’ charity has supported the Medical Detection Dogs charity, of which our Honorary Liveryman, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall is patron. This included sponsoring black labrador “Plum”, whose picture you can see above.