Published 13:27 IST, August 31st 2020
Cancer, coronavirus, and other diseases dogs can detect; details inside
Various studies done in France, Finland, and England found that dogs can detect diseases like coronavirus, cancer, and diabetes. Dogs are trained to do this.
Advertisement
Dogs are known for their highly developed sense to smell, because of this they are trained and are used in security service to find contraband material like drugs and explosive. They also have the capability to detect odours that are imperceptible to humans, which indicate the presence of certain diseases. Here are some of the disease and health conditions, which dogs are being taught to detect.
Coronavirus
The world has been fighting with novel coronavirus and this health emergency has impacted the world economy very badly, but scientist and several researchers are training dogs to detect coronavirus infected patients. In the month of March, a university in Finland, the University of Helsinki in its pilot study, trained dogs as a medical diagnostic assistant and they were made capable to distinguish between urine of healthy person and urine of corona virus-infected patient.
In France, a scientific and research institute French École Vétérinaire de Maisons-Alfort is developing a method, which is reportedly being tested in the city of Strasbourg, the island of Corsica and at other locations outside France, has demonstrated encouraging preliminary results. In this experiment, dogs are trained to detect the specific smell in the perspiration of people infected by the novel coronavirus.
Diabetes
In 2019, a British study published in Plos One found that dogs can find hypoglycemic episodes in people suffering Type 1 diabetes in more than 80% cases. The study further shed light on the phenomena in which dogs can also be trained to adopt a specific signalling behaviour, like nuzzling their owner's legs when they have identified the odour of hypoglycemia.
Cancer
There are various cases reported, where it is found that dogs have alerted their owners, who were suffering from cancer. In a very rare incident, which took place in 2015, a dog named Daisy, who had been trained to sniff out cancer, reportedly alerted her owner by repeatedly nuzzling her bosom. After sometime Daisy’s mistress was diagnosed with breast cancer
This surprising phenomenon is made possible by a particular odour caused by the disease in the urine and blood of affected humans. An American study published in 2019 notably showed that beagles trained to detect the odour of lung cancer in blood samples could effectively identify the disease in more than 96% of cases.
13:27 IST, August 31st 2020