More measles in Manitoba than rest of Canada combined; provincial numbers in first four months of year exceed all of 2025

Manitoba reported more measles cases in the first four months of this year — 519 confirmed and 42 probable — than it did in all of 2025.

That compares to a total 319 cases last year, Manitoba Health’s latest surveillance report shows.

And the province has more measles cases than anywhere else in the country, says the latest Health Canada data, which lags a bit behind the provincial numbers.

As of April 18, 556 of the 907 cases reported across the country were in Manitoba.

“If anything, the numbers may not be as bad as they could’ve been,” said Southern Health-Santé medical officer of health Dr. Davinder Singh, who is leading Manitoba’s response to the outbreak.

The measles virus spreads through close contact with an infected person and through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

Earlier this year, public health officials expressed concern about spread of the highly communicable infectious diseases during spring break (March 30-April 3) and overlapping events or major religious celebrations, including Easter and Passover.

Prairie Mountain Health region set up a booth offering measles vaccination on March 30 at Brandon’s Royal Manitoba Winter Fair after officials expressed concern that it could be a “super spreader” event.

They feared a repeat of January’s Manitoba Ag Days, also held in Brandon, where dozens of out-of-town attendees are believed to have contracted measles. The province confirmed 81 cases that month.

February had the highest number of confirmed cases thus far this year (177), followed by 159 in March and 102 in April.

“We saw after Ag Days that there was quite a large increase,” Singh said Friday. “We expected that could’ve happened again after spring break and Easter weekend and so on, but it’s been relatively more of the same.”

He said Interlake-Eastern health region is among the areas where there have been some increases in the number of cases for short periods of time.

“Overall, from a provincial perspective, the number of cases have stayed either relatively steady or dropped slightly but, overall, there’s a large number of measles cases in Manitoba,” Singh said, adding he isn’t expecting a sharp reduction any time soon, even though warmer temperatures mean Manitobans spend more time outdoors where there’s a reduced risk of infection.

He said it’s likely there are still a “number of pockets” of Manitobans who haven’t been immunized or exposed yet to measles.

“If there’s a specific gathering with a lot of people that haven’t, for whatever reason, been exposed yet and aren’t immunized, the numbers could go up. It’s incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to predict,” he said.

“If we have the same numbers in May, June and July that we do in April, I would not be surprised.”

He said there’s been a slight uptick in the vaccination rate, but attributed it to expanded eligibility for infants in regions with a lot of measles spread, including Southern Health, Prairie Mountain and Interlake-Eastern.

Measles tends to be more severe in infants and young children and can be life-threatening. It can be prevented through immunization, but vaccine uptake is low in some areas of the province.

Two vaccine doses provide 97 per cent protection, and almost 90 per cent of cases in Manitoba were not vaccinated. The slight increase in measles vaccination is positive but won’t slow the spread.

“It still isn’t a high-enough increase to significantly change the transmission in the outbreak,” Singh said.

“It’s very hard to predict exactly how things will develop.…We’re only seeing a relatively small fraction of the true number of cases.”

The province can’t say how many measles cases are not being reported, so the confirmed and probable numbers don’t represent “the full picture,” he said.

Patients showing up in hospitals, clinics and doctor’s offices with the highly-infectious disease add to the strain on the health-care system, Singh said.

“Anecdotally, it is having an impact. It varies depending where you are, with the biggest impact, where you’re seeing the most number of cases, in the catchment area for Boundary Trails Health Centre.”

The hospital is located between Morden and Winkler in Southern Health, which has the lowest vaccination rates in the province (only 55.9 per cent of children have received two doses by age seven, compared to 80 per cent in Winnipeg).

“They would be seeing the largest number of people having measles cases,” Singh said, adding Manitoba’s ongoing outbreak and vaccination hesitancy is “frustrating.”

“You try to hope for a better outcome,” he said. “You hear about a family that does change their mind, and are happy about that outcome — that they’ve chosen to protect themselves and their family.

“There’s a range of emotions that come with working in this area.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca