Man’s best friend is known for its loyalty and playful spirit, but now may even be trained to save your life.
Research presented at a recent American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene meeting explained how dogs are being trained to smell and diagnose malaria in humans.
Two dogs were exposed to 175 nylon sock samples taken from children in West Africa to identify whether a person is infected with the disease.
The animals were conditioned to sniff out the malaria odor in 70-percent of the samples, and were able to identify 90-percent of samples that didn’t include the disease.
When a person is infected with malaria their body odors change.
(AP/Photo)
Officials now believe the dogs can be used to screen for the disease at ports of entry such as how dogs can smell out certain forms of cancer and diabetes as well as detect drugs at airports.
“It’s finding a new way to identify people who may not feel sick, but are carrying malaria in their systems and could therefore pass it to other people through the bite of a mosquito,” explained Annemarie Meyer, director of Advocacy and Policy at Malaria No More. “So, for countries that have eliminated, it’s a really interesting potential new way that they could protect their borders and keep their countries malaria-free.”
The World Health Organization is claiming nearly half the world’s population is at risk for the virus, and the study is compelling researchers to consider the possibility of using dogs in the future to diagnose additional diseases.
“I think the potential of this is only just starting and I’m very excited that we’re actually now moving forward, showing that dogs hold the answer to so many diseases that have been difficult to diagnose over so many centuries,” said Claire Guest, chief executive of Medical Detection Dogs.
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 7:38 AM PT — Wed. Oct. 31, 2018
