{"id":657727,"date":"2026-05-09T07:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T07:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/657727\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T07:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T07:38:09","slug":"3-deaths-linked-to-hepatitis-a-in-manitoba-amid-growing-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/657727\/","title":{"rendered":"3 deaths linked to hepatitis A in Manitoba amid growing outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p>Manitoba health officials are urging people to get vaccinated amid an outbreak of hepatitis A that began just over a year ago.<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of cases have been linked to an outbreak that initially affected northern communities but has spread across the province in recent months, officials said in a media bulletin Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The infectious liver disease has led to 133 hospitalizations, five admissions to the intensive care unit and three deaths, the bulletin said.<\/p>\n<p>It said 601 cases of hepatitis A have been associated with the outbreak as of April 26, with 131 of them reported in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n<p>The government reported potential exposures at two Winnipeg locations Friday: one at the Burger King at 333 Home St, from April 8 to April 23, and another at the Augustine United Church at 444 River Ave., on April 19.<\/p>\n<p>Manitoba declared the outbreak in April 2025, with the Island Lake area experiencing the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.mb.ca\/health\/publichealth\/diseases\/hepatitisa.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">largest number of cases.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The disease has an average incubation period of 28 days, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/public-health\/services\/publications\/healthy-living\/canadian-immunization-guide-part-4-active-vaccines\/page-6-hepatitis-a-vaccine.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">federal government says<\/a>, and can spread through food and drinking water contaminated with feces from an infected person as well as close personal contact.<\/p>\n<p>Symptoms range from mild to severe and can include fever, nausea, vomiting or jaundice. The province warns that some people might not develop any symptoms at all, particularly young children.<\/p>\n<p>The province said a lack of sewage and water infrastructure in remote communities has contributed to the ongoing spread of hepatitis A.<\/p>\n<p>Eligibility for a free single dose of hepatitis A vaccine was expanded to people six months and older <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/manitoba\/island-lake-hepatitis-a-outbreak-state-of-emergency-9.6979874\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">for the five First Nations in Island Lake<\/a> in May 2025. The measure was expanded to people in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/manitoba\/hepatitis-a-outbreak-vaccine-eligibility-peguis-first-nation-9.7071079\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Peguis<\/a>, War Lake and Bloodvein River First Nations this year.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone travelling to or working in the communities, and those who welcome household visitors from them, is also eligible for the vaccine, as well as inmates of correctional facilities. <\/p>\n<p>People who have been in contact with someone infected are encouraged to contact Health Links to see whether they&#8217;re eligible. The province said Friday people with other risk factors \u2014 including those experiencing homelessness, drug users and people with certain high-risk medical conditions \u2014 might also be able to get the vaccine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-657727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657727","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=657727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}