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Studies have shown that dogs can sniff out a corona infection
Photo: Liang Sen / Xinhua News Agency / picture alliance
Dogs are not only very popular pets, they can also detect explosives, drugs and even diseases with their particularly well-developed sense of smell.
In a new study, the animals have now also sniffed Long Covid.
For their study, which was uploaded to the medRxiv science server, French researchers collected sweat samples from a total of 233 people.
According to the definition of the World Health Organization (WHO), 45 participants were affected by Long Covid.
For an average of around 15 months, they had suffered from persistent fatigue, difficulty concentrating or neurological impairments.
Those affected were between six and 71 years old, the majority were female (73.3 percent).
All 45 people had gone through symptomatic Covid 19 disease, but no one had to be treated in an intensive care unit during this time.
Sweat samples from the armpit
Long Covid patients took a sweat sample from their armpits for the examination before their morning shower at home and sent it in a freezer bag to the National Veterinary School of Alfort (ENVA), which specializes in veterinary medicine.
There, two dogs specially trained to recognize corona infections sniffed these samples and those from the comparison group.
According to the scientists, the animals struck 23 of the 45 Long Covid samples and none of the comparison samples.
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The results underline the thesis that the coronavirus is permanently implanting at least in some Long Covid patients, write the authors of the study. It is difficult to say why the dogs did not recognize all of the Long Covid samples. It is possible that the quality of the samples taken by the participants themselves was different or that this was influenced by delays in the post.
Comparatively few people took part in the study.
It is also a preprint, which means that the study has not yet been reviewed by independent experts.
However, earlier studies have shown that specially trained dogs can sniff out a corona infection.
For example, researchers from the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover published a study in which sniffer dogs were able to recognize more than nine out of ten people infected with corona using sweat samples.
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