Whooping cough outbreak sticks to Southern Health

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This article was published 01/08/2023 (1166 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A whooping cough outbreak in the Southern Health region hasn’t spread to other parts of the province.

As of July 25, 207 confirmed or probable cases of the highly contagious, potentially deadly respiratory illness pertussis have been reported to Manitoba Health since January — all but two are from Southern Health, the provincial government said Tuesday.

“In Manitoba, the outbreak has been contained and focused in Southern Health,” said Dr. Mahmoud Khodaveisi, medical officer of health for the region.

When the province first declared the whooping cough outbreak June 26, the region had 152 of Manitoba’s 154 cases.

“We still receive many cases,” said Khodaveisi, who expects the outbreak to continue for some time.

Southern Health has more than 216,000 residents over 27,025 square kilometres, including the cities of Portage la Prairie, Steinbach, Morden and Winkler.

The outbreak includes 107 females and 100 males, and has resulted in 87 related visits to emergency departments, and two admissions to pediatric intensive care.

No deaths have been reported.

The updated numbers show the majority of the 207 cases (104) involve children ages two to nine, 39 infants, 32 children ages 10 to 19, and 32 adults.

The medical officer of health said several efforts have been made to increase childhood immunizations in the region, but it’s too soon to measure the uptake.

“We think we are heading in the right direction with the communication with the parents,” he said Tuesday.

Public health offices in the region have been providing opportunities for catch-up childhood immunizations, with evening clinic appointments and additional appointment slots. A reminder letter was sent June 14-15 to families with children who were born in 2019, 2020 and 2021, and are overdue for their vaccines.

The socially conservative, largely rural region that’s historically had low immunization rates was also impacted by public health resources being diverted from community immunization clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The COVID pandemic may have put residents behind on immunizations,” Khodaveisi said. “My message is there is a vaccine; the vaccine is safe and effective against preventing severe illness and preventing transmission to others.

“With this outbreak, it will encourage people that it’s important to have the childhood immunizations.”

As children head back to school next month, the region is close to reaching its pre-pandemic immunization levels, he said.

The whooping cough outbreak in Manitoba may be limited to Southern Health, but it is not alone in Canada.

“Other provinces are also seeing higher-than-expected cases of pertussis,” mainly in communities where there are lower rates of immunization, said Khodaveisi.

The respiratory illness typically occurs in waves each two to five years, according to health officials.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca