As the United Kingdom deals with a meningitis outbreak that has left at least two people dead, Manitoba public health says there has been a growing number of cases in the province since 2023.
“We see these outbreaks, and it just reminds us how serious this illness is,” Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief public health officer, told CBC News.
“The bacterial form is quite serious. Certainly, we see fatalities related to that. It can have severe neurologic complications for those that survive.”
The UK Health Security Agency says there have been 20 confirmed cases of invasive meningococcal disease connected to an outbreak in Canterbury this month.
The life-threatening bacterial infection can infect the brain and spinal cord, causing meningitis, and the bloodstream, causing septicemia.
A student at the University of Kent campus in Canterbury, England, receives an injection during the rollout of a meningitis B vaccine coming in response to an outbreak this month. (Gareth Fuller/PA via The Associated Press)
Roussin said Manitoba has seen a steady increase in the number of meningitis cases over the last three years, most of them connected to the W strain of meningococcal disease.
There used to be about six cases of meningitis reported in Manitoba annually, he said.
There were 12 confirmed infections in 2023. That number increased to 25 in 2024 and remained almost the same, with 24, in 2025, Roussin said.
“We’ve seen similar increases in other provinces as well. But as far as a reason behind it, we have not come up with a definite [one],” Roussin said.
Roussin said that so far this year there have been two cases — one confirmed in January and another in February.
“We want to see a revision back to our typical numbers that we see, or even better, even less than that. But seeing that we’re just sort of three months in, and this number of cases, we can’t really conclude much,” he said.
“We just have to maintain our response.”
An illness ‘we’re always concerned about’
Roussin said that while there are other illnesses that are more contagious, such as measles, meningitis is transmittable through close contact or by secretions, such as when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
“This is an illness that we’re always concerned about, and seeing the increased numbers of cases, it just heightens our awareness,” he said.
That’s in part because the illness has to be acted upon quickly to prevent some of the most serious consequences, Roussin said. Thompson resident Jason Fryza experienced that first-hand in his family after his daughter Leah contracted meningitis in 2024.
The disease presented like an ear infection that was treated with antibiotics. But the medication didn’t work, and Leah was flown to Winnipeg after she was diagnosed with a bacterial form of the illness.
“Everything happened so fast,” Fryza said.
Leah Fryza recovered from meningitis after contracting a bacterial form of the disease at age 11 in 2024. (Submitted by Jason Fryza)
The then 11-year-old girl stayed in hospital for more than a week undergoing exams and taking antibiotics as doctors discovered a cyst in her brain, her father said.
Leah didn’t end up suffering any long-term health consequences, but Fryza said the outcome could have been much worse had it not been for the care she received.
Health Canada says 20 per cent of patients who recover from the meningococcal disease, which causes meningitis, have long-term disabilities such as hearing loss, brain injury, seizure conditions and memory disorders.
“It’s easy to take life for granted when things are going well,” Fryza said. “We were lucky we caught it in that first 24-hour window.”
Leah was vaccinated against meningococcal disease. Her father said he is not sure whether the routine immunization at the time covered all the strains of the illness and that it is possible she might have contracted one of the types not covered.
“If this is something that’s starting to tick up, then the question should be asked, ‘Is there a vaccine available for some of these strains that we might not have?'”
Updating vaccine protocols
Roussin said Manitoba has seen most meningitis cases in recent years among young people in Winnipeg and northern First Nations.
In response to the spike, the province changed vaccine eligibility to allow children to get shots against four strains of invasive meningococcal disease — A, C, Y and W — at the age of one. Before 2024, children had to wait until Grade 6 for that kind of shot, Roussin said.
“The vaccines are very useful and very effective. We’re not seeing people vaccinated acquire these illnesses,” he said.
The routine vaccine doesn’t include protection against meningococcal disease type B, which has been linked to all confirmed 20 cases in the U.K. outbreak.
Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief public health officer, says meningitis is easily transmittable through close contact or by secretions. (John Woods/The Canadian Press)
Roussin said vaccines are available for that strain of the disease that can lead to meningitis and it is often used for high-risk individuals, and in response to cases after contact tracing.
“Right now, it’s not part of our routine schedule because we’re not seeing that as part of our epidemiology,” he said.
Fryza said he would like to see as many strains of the disease be covered with vaccination as possible.
“Those vaccines are there for a reason … they’ve helped people over the course of however long we’ve had them,” he said. “It seems clear, like, they seem to help.”