The dogs are part of an ongoing state-sponsored investigation that aims to find a cheaper, alternative way to Covid-19 tests at airports.
According to the researchers, these four dogs are able to detect the presence of the virus in 10 seconds, in a process at the airport that lasts about one minute per person.
“It is very promising,” he told the British newspaper The Guardian Hielm-Björkman, from the University of Helsinki, responsible for this research. “If it works, it can be used in other places” like hospitals or homes, for example.
The process is relatively simple. People arriving on a trip – after lifting their bags – are asked to wipe the neck with a cloth that is then placed in a bottle, along with others with different aromas.
At that point the dog starts to smell. If it detects the presence of the new coronavirus it starts to bark. If this happens, the passenger is directed to perform the nasal test in order to make sure that he or she is infected with the new coronavirus.-
Preliminary tests, The Guardian, indicate that these dogs – who had already been trained to detect cancer or diabetes – managed to alert the presence of the virus with an efficiency of almost 100 percent.
In many cases, several days before people even start to have symptoms.
This phenomenon was explained by a recent study, carried out in France, which concluded that dogs can distinguish by the odor of sweat from those who are infected.
Authorities in Vantaa, the city where Helsinki International Airport is located, say the study being carried out on these dogs has a cost of around $ 300,000 and is expected to last four months. A value, they add, substantially less than the cost of carrying out laboratory tests.
Soon the number of dogs being used for this job is expected to increase. Another 10, with a total of 16 who are being trained to detect the new coronavirus in the human body.
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