Dogs to be Trained to Detect COVID-19

As always, dogs are coming to our rescue.

BBC News reports that a UK charity named Medical Detection Dogs is working on training dogs to detect COVID-19 infections via their sense of smell. The organization has already successfully trained dogs to identify malaria, cancer, bacterial infections, and Parkinson’s Disease.

The organization expects the pooches to be ready for service in six weeks. It believes that this noninvasive, cuddly form of screening will be especially helpful in preventing “the re-emergence of the disease after we have brought the present epidemic under control.”

More from BBC News.

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This is Freya, a Medical Detection Dog. She has just correctly detected a sample of malaria from a row of sample pots. The charity based in Milton Keynes, UK is currently working with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to test whether the dogs can be re-trained in the next six weeks to provide a rapid, non-invasive diagnosis of coronavirus. Medical Detection Dogs has successfully trained it's dogs to detect cancer, Parkinson's and bacterial infections, through the sense of smell. Click the link in our bio to find out more.👆(📷Leon Neal/Getty Images) #Dog #DogsOfInstagram #Coronavirus #Covid19 #BBCNews

A post shared by BBC News (@bbcnews) on Mar 27, 2020 at 10:42am PDT