Diagnosis of malaria with the help of dogs

Mammals with a highly developed sense of smell are called macrosmats, and dogs are the most famous members of this group. They can smell a smell that is imperceptible to the human nose. The number of canine olfactory genes reaches thousands, and olfactory receptors exceed the mark of 300 million, while in humans - only 6 million such receptors.

Previously, dogs have been taught to use olfactory superpowers for the benefit of medicine: they can detect cancer. A new study by British scientists from the University of Durham has shown that four-legged "sniffers" can be useful in diagnosing another disease - malaria.

An extraordinary way to detect malaria

The disease is provoked by plasmodia - the simplest parasites that enter the human body through the bite of a female malaria mosquito. The patient has a fever, anemia develops, and the spleen and liver increase in size. Malaria is fatal in the absence of proper medical care.

According to Professor James Logan, who works at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, it is not always possible to detect the disease before the first serious symptoms. The patient's blood test is time consuming and requires laboratory equipment that is not available to every medical institution. So the scientists decided to hire dogs as assistants. To make sure that the animals can afford such work, the organizers of the experiment did the following:

• 175 visually healthy children aged 5–14 were invited to participate. They were all from West Africa, where malaria is common.
• They took blood from each of them for analysis.
• The children were asked to wear nylon socks at night.
• These items of clothing were frozen and sent for examination.
• In parallel, two Labradors were taught to distinguish between the odors of healthy and infected children (with parasites at an early stage of development).

It turned out that 30 participants were infected. When dogs were allowed to smell children's socks, the animals recognized the disease in 70% of cases, and in search of healthy children were 90% accurate. This result is impressive, especially given the sniffing not of the people themselves, but of their clothing, which has been exposed to low temperatures. Experts say that a trained dog will help the doctor to start treatment in time in regions with a low level of medicine.