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Dogs detect Malaria at the smell of socks

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It sounds a bit like in the TV show “Wetten, dass..?”: Can sniff out a dog on the basis of worn socks, and Malaria? According to a British study this is the case. The method could make school.

Sally and Lexi have smelled many socks. The two Malaria-sniffing dogs have learned to be able to Malaria to smell good. To do this, you have to practise, practise and practise once again.

The first sock, the Sally is passing by, smells just after the sock, the second and the third also. But the fourth sock smells different. The Labrador lady stops for a second, sniffs again, and is confident that This sock smells like Malaria parasites. And she’s right. She has done her Job as a Medical detection dog is good, and there is a reward.

More: World’s biggest vaccination campaign against Malaria start in Africa

Watch the Video 00:40

Malaria-Dog Sally

The olfactory functions of dogs is 60 Times greater than that of the people. Up to 300 million olfactory cells. Trained dogs can warn diabetics against impending hypoglycemia and epileptic before a seizure. If someone has cancer, detect it in the air, breathe out the one. Sally and Lexi can detect the body odor of a person, whether he has Malaria parasites in the body. The disease is in Africa continues to be a major Problem.

The socks test to the Gambia

Around 600 children from the Gambia at the age of five to ten years participated in a study at the University in the English Durham. Professor Steven Lindsay has guided them: “We have visited four schools at the end of the rainy season. Then there are the majority of Malaria cases. We have taken all of these school children blood samples. In addition, we have given you nylon stockings. You should wear overnight,” explains Lindsay. The very personal smell of each and every child has to pass on to the stockings.


The smell of nylon stockings

The researchers have sent the worn stockings vacuum-Packed to England. There they were kept, the smell experts nose. The two dogs that were involved in the Experiment, have traced 70 per cent of infected children on the basis of the socks that you have worn. “It was the first study that has dealt with Malaria parasites,” explains Lindsay.

The Malaria-positive from Malaria-negative socks distinguish, were investigated in the blood samples and the corresponding socks associated with it. On the basis of blood samples, the scientists also noted that 30 of the 175 children in the Test, with Plasmodium falciparum were found to be infected, so a Malaria pathogen.

Without a blood test, and only with your fine Riechorganen recognized Sally and Lexi in the parasite infections in a very early stage. In the case of any of the children, the disease had broken out, but the parasites, the infectious disease, were in the body, and was reflected in the socks. The sooner Malaria is detected, the better the prognosis is, and the sooner Doctors administer medication.

More: So you can protect yourself from Malaria

The Golden Retriever Lexi, the Detection of Malaria parasites, rather than the game

For the dogs it is a game

“We have established a set of five glass containers, and small stripes on the stockings, put into it,” explains Lindsay. The dogs are gone to the series of containers along, and if in one of the containers was the sock of an infected child, then the dog has discovered the. “All in all, the results were very good. They were even better than the rapid tests, which we do normally in African hospitals,” adds Lindsay.

To take on good luck with the whole population of blood samples, in order to come to a possible Malaria infection on the track is impossible. The situation is different when working with the animal Smell-specialists. “The method with the dogs is non-invasive and takes place without any physical contact. The dogs need not to touch,” says Lindsay. The diagnosis does not take place effectively at a distance, any equipment are needed.

Lindsay is convinced that the use of sniffer dogs could develop a quick and straightforward method to identify Malaria in people who show no symptoms, but still highly contagious.

Similar to drug-sniffing dogs, the four-legged Malaria could be used-experts, for example, at airports. As an example, Lindsay called South Africa. “Malaria control in South Africa is quite good. Nevertheless, there are always thousands of cases. Workers from neighboring regions could bring parasites into the country. These people are not ill maybe once, but they carry dangerous parasites and spread them.”

The four-legged sniffers may help, the risk of a little einzudämpfen. In the future, you can sniff this is certainly also on other items of clothing, not just worn socks.

More: Is Malaria, with Gene Drive to completely eradicate?


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