The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) has announced that it will now include measles data in its public Wastewater Surveillance Data Dashboard. This decision follows a pilot program launched in May, which tested the effectiveness of using wastewater surveillance to detect measles outbreaks early.
During the pilot phase, CDPHE identified a measles signal in Grand Junction’s wastewater before any clinical cases were reported. The department was able to alert local health officials in Mesa County as a result. “The ability to detect viruses in wastewater before we see clinical cases allows us to be proactive in our public health response,” said Allison Wheeler, Wastewater Surveillance Unit Manager at CDPHE. “This successful pilot gives us the confidence to make this information publicly available, providing Coloradans with another layer of information about disease in their communities.”
CDPHE stated that this update brings its dashboard into alignment with recent changes made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to its own measles wastewater monitoring system. The new data provides information on viral detection capacity across different regions of Colorado. According to CDPHE, these details can help health care providers and public health agencies allocate resources more effectively and give residents better insight into their risk of disease.
The expansion adds measles tracking to an existing platform that already monitors several other viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, influenza A and B, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), enterovirus D68 (EV-D68), and mpox.
