Steve Lindsay

People carrying malaria parasite already have a signature scent, and we know if dogs can smell drugs, food and other substances, they should be able to detect this smell on clothing, too.

We took the socks that had captured the scent of the children overnight and flew them to the UK, where the dogs were trained to smell and differentiate samples that were infected or not.

It is useful in countries like South Africa, close to elimination, or Sri Lanka, that has eliminated malaria. How do you locate that one person in a million people carrying the parasite in a country that has recorded no infection without doing invasive tests ?

Improved housing has huge potential to reduce malaria transmission around the globe and to keep malaria at bay where we have eliminated it.

Dogs could be a great way to screen a large number of people quickly and prevent COVID-19 from being re-introduced into the UK.