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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

You can detect sick person by looking at photo

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Paris: Human beings can spot a sick person, on a photo, a mere two hours after he or she was infected by a germ, researchers said on Wednesday.


Such an ability to detect infection early, and from the subtlest of facial clues, has never been demonstrated before, but is presumed to be part of a crucial survival skill called “disease avoidance”, they wrote.


“An ability to detect sick people would allow people to avoid being close to sick people, and hence minimise the risk of becoming sick if the person is a carrier of contagious disease,” study co-author John Axelsson of Stockholm University said.


The research team experimented with 16 healthy volunteers, all Caucasian. Each was given a shot of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) — molecules taken from bacteria.


The LPS molecules are sterile, meaning that no live bacteria is injected.


But they cause a strong immune response and flu-like symptoms that lasts a few hours — mimicking someone who is “acutely sick” and fighting off infection.


It is a method commonly used to cause infections in humans and people for experimentation purposes.


On a second occasion, each participant received a placebo or “dummy” injection.


The volunteers had their photo taken about two hours after each shot — thus once in a healthy state after receiving the placebo, and once “sick”.


After the LPS shot, some of the participants “felt very sick and others did not feel much sick at all” when their photo was taken, Axelsson explained.


— AFP


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