British charity The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Durham University will be working with medical detection dogs to determine if they could help sniff out the Covid-19 virus. The new research follows previous studies of their ability to diagnosis malaria through their keen sense of smell and is based on a belief that each disease triggers a distinct odour. Rsearchers have started preparations to train dogs in six weeks "to help provide a rapid, non-invasive diagnosis towards the tail end of the epidemic". The charity has previously trained dogs to detect diseases such as cancer, Parkinson's and bacterial infections by sniffing samples taken from patients.