{"id":654830,"date":"2026-05-08T00:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T00:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/654830\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T00:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T00:16:13","slug":"manitoba-declares-hiv-public-health-emergency-over-sharp-rise-in-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/654830\/","title":{"rendered":"Manitoba declares HIV public health emergency over sharp rise in cases"},"content":{"rendered":"

Increased HIV<\/a> transmission in Manitoba has prompted the province to declare a public health emergency, its chief provincial public health officer announced Thursday.<\/p>\n

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An estimated 120 cases have been reported provincially in the first quarter of this year, according to Dr. Brent Roussin, though he cautioned that this recent data may have duplicates from people who were tested more than once.<\/p>\n

\u201cHIV rates in Manitoba have\u00a0sharply risen\u00a0over the last\u00a0number of\u00a0years.\u00a0In 2025, there were 328 new cases reported. If we compare that to 2021, we saw 142 cases that year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One perinatal case, where an infant was born with HIV, was reported in 2025, according to a provincial news release.<\/p>\n

Cases tend to be concentrated in Manitoba\u2019s Northern and Prairie Mountain health regions, but, due to its high population, Winnipeg has the highest number of people with HIV, Roussin said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is significant. It\u2019s concerning, and it requires a co-ordinated action across governments, communities and health systems,\u201d the doctor added.<\/p>\n

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This state of emergency provides Manitoba with access to non-traditional forms of testing, including self-testing, and increases the availability of standard blood draw tests for HIV, Roussin said.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t4:35
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCases of HIV on the rise across Manitoba\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

HIV is transmitted via bodily fluids, including blood, semen and vaginal fluids, and breast milk.<\/p>\n

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Injection drug use and unprotected heterosexual sex are the leading causes for the spread of HIV, the provincial government said.<\/p>\n

Improving access to care for the virus is vital to slowing its spread, according to Manitoba\u2019s chief health officer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to emphasize here that HIV is preventable, and it\u2019s treatable. We have effective tools available for prevention, such as things like condoms [and] harm reduction services. And we have medications for both pre-exposure and post-exposure,\u201d Roussin said, adding that the medication is covered for eligible Manitobans.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe also know that early diagnosis and treatment\u00a0saves\u00a0lives. When an individual living with HIV takes their medication regularly, the level of the\u00a0virus\u00a0in their blood becomes undetectable eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the virus becomes undetectable, it can\u2019t be transmitted, he added.<\/p>\n

Trends in the province were said to be different from national numbers. More than half of the province\u2019s cases are in women, compared with 32 per cent of Canadians with HIV. Most of the cases in Manitoba were in women under 40, the province said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Increased HIV transmission in Manitoba has prompted the province to declare a public health emergency, its chief provincial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84,1842],"class_list":["post-654830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-hiv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}