24 2GM Tuesday May 17 2022 | the times
News
Airport sniffer dogs are highly adept at
detecting the coronavirus, according to
the first published results from a trial in
Finland.
Researchers said that in future pan-
demics dogs could be used “as the sole
testing method when other approaches
are not yet available”. A team of dogs at
an airport in Helsinki were able to
match the results of PCR tests 98 per
cent of the time.
The team behind the study, published
in the online journal BMJ Global Health,
said it showed sniffer dogs could
“provide a valuable tool to contain the
pandemic”.
PCR testing, although highly
accurate, had some drawbacks, they
said: “Its practicality is hampered
by inadequate availability, restricted
testing capacity, high costs, long turn-
around time and prolonged positivity
after infection.”
Using dogs offered “an approach not
confined to laboratories, enabling large
sample numbers with results in real
time”.
Professor Anu Kantele, of the
department of infectious diseases at
Helsinki University Hospital, who led
the research, said: “The basic idea at
airports would be that the dogs do the
first-stage screening and those marked
as positive could then be tested, for
example with PCR.”
She said that the dogs would enable
Dogs match PCR as
coronavirus testers
primary screening of all incoming
passengers.
Dogs can detect a scent at levels as
low as one part per trillion, which is far
more sensitive than any mechanical
instrument. They are thought to be able
to detect volatile organic compounds
such as those generated by bacterial,
viral and parasitic infections.
Four dogs trained to detect illicit
drugs, dangerous goods or cancer were
used to sniff 303 incoming passengers
at Helsinki-Vantaa airport between
September 2020 and April 2021. Each
passenger also took a PCR swab test.
In 296 out of 303 samples, the PCR
and sniffer dog results matched. They
correctly identified the samples as
negative in 296 out of 300 cases.
Although they identified three
PCR positive cases as negative, when
scientists revisited those PCR results
one was judged to be negative and one
likely to be a lingering positive result
after an earlier infection. Only one was
judged a true positive.
If enough samples were available —
about 400 — “and your dogs have pre-
viously been trained to sniff something
else”, she said experienced trainers
could get a dog ready within two weeks.
The researchers said the dogs ap-
peared to be less successful at picking
up the Alpha variant of coronavirus, as
they had been trained to detect the
original Wuhan strain. But they said
this went to show how good the dogs
were at distinguishing scents.Kat Lay Health Editor
ARTURO HOLMES/GETTY IMAGESSilver screen Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary, arrives at the New York
premiere of Downton Abbey: A New Era. The film was released in Britain in AprilSpeech therapy
referrals double
after lockdown
Nadeem BadshahThe coronavirus lockdowns hampered
the ability of toddlers to speak and play
properly and have led to referrals for
language therapy doubling, experts say.
Twenty per cent of children are not
reaching expected standards by the age
of two-and-a-half, figures published by
the Office for Health Improvement and
Disparities show.
Some 79.6 per cent of youngsters re-
viewed last autumn met the expected
level in all five areas of development,
which include communication, gross
and fine motor skills, problem-solving
and personal-social skills.
In the preceding three-and-a-half
years, the figure was 83.1 per cent, the
Health Service Journal said.
In communication skills, 85.3 per
cent of children hit the standard, which
was down from 88.1 per cent over the
previous three-and-a-half years.
Kamini Gadhok, chief executive of
the Royal College of Speech and Lan-
guage Therapists, said that its members
were “very worried” about the number
of toddlers struggling with their speech.
She told The Daily Telegraph: “Our
members tell us growing lists and wait-
ing times for speech and language ther-
apy are dramatically impacting on their
ability to provide the support which
children need for the best start in life.”
The government said: “We are
working hard to improve support for
families.”