Something alarming happened in Mesa County in August: In the span of a few days, public health officials identified two new people with measles. Even worse, both of them caught the virus locally from an unknown source.

Was this the beginning of a long-feared major outbreak?

“That did certainly represent challenging circumstances, starting from an unknown case,” said Dr. Rachel Herlihy, the deputy chief medical officer at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

But, rather than scrambling, Mesa County public health leaders were well prepared to respond because they had received an early tip. The poop knew.

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