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Researchers at the University of Durham (UK) found that dogs can feel malaria in sock samples worn by infected children, a finding that could lead to the first screening test "fast and non-invasive".
"Although our investigations are at an early stage, we have shown that dogs can be trained to detect people infected with malaria by their odor with great precision," said the senior author. Steve Lindsay
The team led by Lindsay hopes that dogs trained for tracking "can help stop the spread of malaria between countries and allow infected people to be screened early and treated quickly".
"This could be a non-invasive way of detecting disease at entry points in the same way that dogs detect fruit or drugs at airports," said the scientist.
The research, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was based on the study of nylon socks of children from 5 to 14 years of age apparently in good health. Region of Gambia
Sock samples were transported to the United Kingdom, where two dogs, a Golden Retriever labrador named Lexi and a farmer named Sally, were trained in the distinction between L & # 39; smell of children infected with malaria and others. healthy.
A total of 175 sock samples were badyzed, including those from 30 children with malaria and 145 children without the disease.
Dogs could correctly identify 70% of cases. samples infected with malaria that can correctly identify 90% of the samples without parasites of this disease.
According to the latest World Malaria report from the World Health Organization (WHO), 216 million cases of malaria in 2016, an increase of five million cases compared in the previous year, while there were 445,000 deaths.
Another of the study's lead authors, Claire Guest, said the findings of this report are "extremely exciting for the future" because, if confirmed, this is about an extremely accurate and non-invasive test.
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