Claim: dogs can smell covid infections

Question

A CNN article came out and claimed that dogs may be able to smell infectious diseases, and can help detect covid in K-12 school. Is this true?

Answer 1

According to the Hospital of Central Connecticut, technically dogs can smell the basic immune responses that the human body have to COVID-19 and other immune changes because a dogs sense of smell is incredibly strong. 

Your immune system has a signature smell that is unique to you and when you have an immune response to COVID-19 that smell changes to the point where dogs can recognize that something is off. 

According to the article linked below, a dog can identify if an individual has COVID-19 about as well as test and can identify individuals that have had COVID even after symptoms fade because the faint smell might still be different. 

https://thocc.org/about/news-press/news-detail?articleid=42926&publicId=395#:~:text=As%20it%20turns%20out%2C%20dogs,Bieluch.

Rating: More than likely not Misinformation

Answer 2

I also found a source confirming this. ABS News states, "Dogs can detect Covid with high accuracy, even asymptomatic cases". I would say that these two sources have strong enough evidence to deem this true.

Comments

Do you have a source link to ABS News? Is it a legitimate website?

Answer 3

According to a study done by The California Department of Public Health, "After 2 months of training on COVID-19 scent samples in the laboratory, the dogs achieved greater than 95% sensitivity and specificity for detection of the virus. " So I would say this is true. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2804205#:~:text=After%202%20months%20of%20training,1%20to%20May%2025%2C%202022.

Comments

I believe the same thing! This is a great article to read on the scenario!

Answer 4

This is true, according to an articel from understanding animal research dogs are able to smell human sickness as changes in human hormones and compounds relased by sick cells are easy for them to pickup on.

https://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/news/the-science-of-sniffs-disease-smelling-dogs

Comments

This is a great answer! It would make sense that they can since there are a lot of dogs used for different types of diseases such as diabetes.

Answer 5

From personal experience, when I had covid my dog wanted to be no where near me. So personally I think yes this could be true.

Comments

Personal experience is a great addition to any fact-check. It's also a good idea to dig deeper and see what literature, research, or news sources have found on the topic as well to have a more complete fact-check.

Answer 6

source: https://thocc.org/about/news-press/news-detail?articleid=42926&publicId=395#:~:text=As%20it%20turns%20out%2C%20dogs,Bieluch.

According to this article, "two studies published in 2022 - one from France, one from Germany - show that dogs may be able to sniff out long COVID." This article states that dogs can be trained to detect human diseases such as cancer and that can include COVID

Answer 7

According to UCLA Health, it seems that specifically trained dogs are good at detecting COVID-19. Dogs have a history of assisting human with detecting disabilities and illnesses. For example, the article states that, "dogs can detect the presence of some chemicals in parts per trillion. This includes the volatile organic compounds produced by our bodies when we are ill, and which are released via sweat, urine, breath and the skin."

It was said that a few small studies were able to show that dogs could sniff out the Covid-19 infection. The article claims that more studies are needed to be absolutely certain, but the method is promising. 

https://www.uclahealth.org/news/specially-trained-dogs-can-sniff-out-covid-19-infection#:~:text=Professional%20trainers%20claimed%20high%20success,31%20individuals%20with%20no%20symptoms.

Answer 8

 

 

According to Medpage today, it is true that trained dogs have been shown to be capable of detecting COVID-19 in airline passengers with similar accuracy to PCR tests. In a randomized trial at a busy international airport, the dogs demonstrated 92% accuracy, with 92% sensitivity and 91% specificity compared to the RT-PCR test. They correctly identified 98.7% of skin swabs negative on PCR in a real-life setting at the airport. The dogs were trained to detect SARS-CoV-2 positive samples from negative samples and were successful in identifying positive cases even when exposed to the Alpha variant. This method shows promise for screening COVID-infected individuals in mass transit settings.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/98746

Answer 9

According to Understanding Animal Research.org dog's sense of smell can help detect diseases in humans. The article states, "Dogs' sense of smell is so subtle that they can notice the slightest change in human scent cause by disease. The tiniest shifts in hormones or volatile organic compounds released by diseased cells can be picked out by dogs." Although this article does not speak about COVID specifically you can infer that since covid is a type of disease it would be caught by a dog. They are able to detect many different disease and variations of diseases such as cancer. The article also states, "Canines proved to be able to correctly pick out the scent of children infection with malaria parasites 70% of the time from socks they had worn all night."

Link: https://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/news/the-science-of-sniffs-disease-smelling-dogs#:~:text=AND%20their%20noses%20differentiate%20between,be%20picked%20out%20by%20dogs.

Comments

How would you rate the claim? Don't forget to select a rating for each fact-check. Thanks!

Answer 10

This is true

According to UCLA health, dogs can sniff out COVID-19 infections. In one study, 97% of trained dogs could sniff out COVID-19 from sweat samples. This makes them more sensitive than rapid antigen tests. According to NBC news, dogs only need "a few molecules" to identify a positive case.

https://www.uclahealth.org/news/specially-trained-dogs-can-sniff-out-covid-19-infection#:~:text=Professional%20trainers%20claimed%20high%20success,samples%20taken%20from%20335%20people.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/dogs-detect-covid-accuracy-rcna31438