[ad_1]
(CNN) – Dogs may one day be a powerful tool to diagnose malaria, reveals a survey in which animals were trained to determine if a person was infected with the disease simply by feeling their socks.
Dogs have already been trained to use odor in the diagnosis of diabetes and some forms of cancer. Today, British scientists have helped train two dogs to detect malaria parasites, with support from the UK Medical Detection Dogs organization.
"People who carry the malaria parasite have a characteristic odor, and we know that if dogs can smell drugs, food and other substances, they must also: to be able to detect this smell on clothing, "said Steve Lindsay, entomologist at the Department of Biosciences at Durham University and senior research scientist.
Lee: WWF inventory shows losses to the planet
The Lindsay team tested her idea in The Gambia, where she collected the socks of 600 schoolchildren – aged 5 to 13 – with or without malaria. The socks were used to train dogs in the UK for four months.
"We took the socks that had kept the kids' smell during the night and we took them to the UK, where the dogs were trained to smell and differentiate the infected samples," Lindsay explained.
Of the samples, 175 were used to train dogs: 30 children infected with malaria and 145 uninfected children.
NOTICE: Why banning trophy hunting would be worse for endangered animals
Sensing the socks, the dogs (Lexi, a mixture of Labrador and Golden Retriever, and Sally, a Labrador) could accurately detect 70% of infected children and 90% of uninfected children.
The study shows that dogs can help with malaria screening, as they have done for the diagnosis of some forms of cancer, according to the researchers.
Dogs have millions of sensors in the nose that make them more sensitive than humans to smells.
(alkir / Getty Images / iStockphoto)
Lee: Two brothers want to revolutionize the food industry with larvae
However, further research is needed after this pilot study, with the authors pointing out that the method is still in the early stages of testing. The technique must be tested on samples from other countries before the animals can be used in the field, they said.
It is also necessary to carry out further studies, in particular in African countries, to see if dogs can detect "directly" malaria in infected people, the team said.
They added that screening rates could have been higher, up to 78%, if children with malaria had the same type of parasite.
Lee: Nigerian zoo criticized for photo of a camel suffering from malnutrition
According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 216 million cases of malaria in the world in 2016, including 445,000 deaths. The disease can be treated, but there is no preventive vaccine.
The researchers believe that their results could be useful for detecting malaria in people without fever, a common symptom, and thus prevent its spread, especially in they eradicated disease. The identification would also help people to receive early treatment with antimalarials.
"It's useful in countries like South Africa, which is about to eradicate it, or in Sri Lanka, which has eliminated malaria." How do you locate this person in a million parasite carriers in a country that has not registered infection, without an invasive test? "The answer could be dogs," Lindsay said.
Lee: Health experts want you to eat more insects
The method may not be effective in endemic countries such as Nigeria, where malaria is actively transmitted, he warned.
"Dogs would be beneficial for countries where there are virtually no infections or are free of malaria, and you should prevent people from bring malaria to the country … through the airport or seaports ".
Claire Guest, CEO of Medical Detection Dogs, says she's excited about the results. This is the first time that the charity trains dogs to detect a parasitic infection, although its dogs have contributed to the detection of canine cancer and diabetes. A dog named Freya has been trained in malaria detection since the first study.
Lee: Airbnb for dogs becomes fashionable in Mexico
The guests said the results promised that dogs could become cost-effective tools for diagnosing tropical diseases, especially in areas where screening materials are lacking.
"I think this study indicates that dogs have a excellent capacity To detect malaria and if it is presented to a person infected with the parasite or a recently used clothing, its degree of accuracy will be extremely high. It's a reliable, non-invasive and extremely exciting method for the future, "he said.
[ad_2]
Source link
