Prince Charles and Camilla share an important breakthrough for the fight against Covid-19

The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall have taken to Instagram to share an important message about new developments in the fight against Covid-19. 

• The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall have shared an important update about Camilla’s royal patronage.
• The royal couple has shared a message about the furry friends that are helping with the fight against the pandemic.
• In other royal news, Royal fans notice the sweet way Prince William supports Kate during hilarious music performance in Scotland.

Prince Charles and Camilla shared a post on their Instagram of some of the dogs that are able to sniff out Covid-19 in patients and help doctors find a diagnosis.

The caption to the post shared by the Clarence House read, “Today @medicaldetectiondogs announced amazing results from their Covid-19 trial, which show that their dogs can detect the smell of the disease with high levels of accuracy.”

The post from the royals explained how effective this method of diagnosis is. The post said, “The dogs correctly identified the odour of Covid-19 up to 94.3% of the time and when there was no virus present up to 92%. The trial results mean dogs can now train to work in public settings to rapidly mass screen, giving us hope for safer travel and access to public places.” 

The caption concluded that the royal couple has a special connection to this cause as Duchess Camilla is the patron of this charity. The post said, “The Duchess of Cornwall is Patron of Medical Detection Dogs, a charity working to train dogs to detect the odour of human disease. Find out more over on @medicaldetectiondogs.”

Veterinary Nurse Julie Anderson at My Pet Needs That explains that the dog's keen sense of smell is the perfect aid to help sniff out diseases. 

She states, " Humans may have a keen sense of smell, but when it comes to dogs, there’s no competition. Their sense of smell is so advance that they can be trained to smell diseases and illnesses. Humans have around six to 10 million scent receptors, compared to the 220 million that dogs have, so it’s probably easy to understand why police train dogs to detect subtle smells of drugs and explosives, as dogs can pick up smells 100,000 times than that of us humans."

Julie also argues that this new way of testing people for Covid-19 could be a great asset. They state, "Humans have tests for cancer and Parkinson's, so the need for a dog’s sense of smell in those areas are minimal, but if a dog were able to smell out Covid, and other flu-like symptoms, it would be a great inclusion in reopening the country."

Charity organization Medical Detection Dogs tested the highly trained canines and found that they can detect coronavirus in 88% of cases. Meaning that for every 100 patients with Covid-19, only 12 were not accurately diagnosed with the infection.

Medical Detection Dogs Chief Scientific Officer, Claire Guest, spoke positively about these results and the diagnosing ability of this project. She said that these tests, "further evidence that dogs are one of the most reliable biosensors for detecting the odour of human disease".

Professor Logan at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has also agreed that these results could make testing on a larger scale easier. He said that canine testing could be, "a suitable method for mass screening."

This scientific program is still in its infancy but the royals are continuing to support the research and have provided a way for royal fans to donate to the charity at Medical Detection Dogs.