Measles outbreak in Winkler-Morden region not a cause for concern for many

Despite high rates of measles in the Winkler and Morden area, many residents say they are not worried about the disease, CBC News found during a recent visit.

The southern health region, which includes two Manitoba cities, has 50 more confirmed cases of measles in 2026 than any other in the country. The latest data from Health Canada says.

the return of a highly contagious disease, which was abolished until recently Vaccinations in Canada aren’t a big deal for some people in the region.

“I think people are making a little bigger deal of it than it really is,” said Maddie Friesen, who didn’t know anyone affected, outside a mall in Winkler, about 100 kilometers southwest of Winnipeg.

“If you get it, it sucks, but what can you really do? You get it, you get better, you get the antibodies and you’re good to go.”

Measles is a topic that most people asked for comment on the streets of Winkler did not want to discuss.

Vice Mayor Andrew Froese said unless you’re infected or work in a health care setting, life hasn’t changed.

“To be honest, I haven’t heard much about it outside of the health world. So in our everyday lives here at Winkler, there may be some conversations in the coffee shop, but I would say it’s not a common conversation, right now,” Froese said.

People in the city follow public health guidelines but are generally not concerned, he said.

Froese said, “Many of us don’t see what’s happening in the hospital. We see what’s happening in our workplaces or in public, and I myself don’t see it that often.”

“So when they report cases, I mean, sometimes we’re a little surprised.”

CBC News also contacted the mayor of neighboring Morden. Nancy Penner’s office declined to comment on the issue.

Until this week, Provincial data shows 27 cases of measles have been reported in Manitoba hospitals since the province first notified the public January 2025 demonstration in Winkler.

Two of those patients were in intensive care, and 18 patients were under the age of 10.

Dr. Eleni Galanis, director general of the emerging and respiratory infections and pandemic preparedness branch at the Public Health Agency of Canada, said most people infected with measles develop a rash, fever, red eyes and mouth sores and then recover.

“But a small portion may become severely infected and may need to be hospitalized, because they either get pneumonia — which is pneumonia caused by a virus that is difficult to treat — or inflammation of the brain, which can lead to long-term complications like deafness and … blindness,” Galanis said.

Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief provincial public health officer, has listed five neighboring rural municipalitiesThroughout the Southern Health Region, where measles transmission levels remain high: Stanley, Rhineland, Thompson, Dufferin and Rowland.

business as usual

The town of Winkler, population about 14,000, According to 2021 censusand Morden, with a population of more than 9,000They are surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Stanley, and act as the urban center for the area dealing with the current outbreak.

At the Canadian Fossil Discovery Center in Morden, which is in the building that hosted the region’s mass vaccination site during the COVID-19 pandemic, director Adolfo Cuetara said he is closely following measles updates for his city, but visitors are either unaware of the outbreak or not concerned.

The center broke attendance records last year with nearly 16,000 paid visits, but Cuetara worries it won’t be able to sustain if measles rates remain high in the area.

The city has paid more attention to its fossils and the science surrounding them than to measles, he said.

“We have to keep it that way.”

But the outbreak shows no signs of abating, with regional municipalities the source of 27 confirmed cases of measles in three weeks this year. Provincial health experts estimate actual infections to be 10 times higher.

stressful hospital

When patients with measles visit health care centers, isolation protocols are used to contain the disease.

“Anyone who has measles is directed to either an air isolation room or a room that has a door that can be closed at all times,” said Margo Singleton, an infection prevention physician at Bethesda Regional Health Center in Steinbach.

The room must then be cleaned and the air exchanged before the space can be used again, as the measles virus can live in the air or on surfaces for hours.

But those protocols impact the space available at places like Boundary Trails Health Center, which is located between Morden and Winkler and is the region’s major hospital.

Boundary Trails has reported seven exposure incidents in its emergency department, public health office and ultrasound room since Jan. 19, and it is the location most frequently listed Provincial Exposure Notifications.

In an effort to protect staff and patients, public health officials want people to call a hospital or clinic immediately if they suspect they have measles.

“We can try to set up an isolation room, or we can come out to the car — and I know that’s what they’re doing,” Bethesda’s Singleton said.

Public health officials say the most effective way to prevent measles is vaccination, which helped Canada achieve measles elimination status in November since 1998.

In the latest outbreak, 26 of the 27 people diagnosed with measles in a Manitoba hospital were not vaccinated for the disease or had unknown vaccination status, by province.

There have been 520 confirmed cases of measles in Manitoba since January 2025. Of those, 440 – or 85 percent – ​​included people who had not had any doses of measles vaccine, and another 25 (five percent) had unknown vaccination status.

vaccine uptake low

Vaccination rates among school-age children are falling in Southern Health, and are also falling much less Compared to the rest of the province.

In 2023, two-thirds of seven-year-olds in Manitoba were vaccinated against measles. At Southern Health, it was closer to half.

In 2015, 74 percent of seven-year-old children in Southern Health were vaccinated against measles.

Manitoba’s top doctor says the province is not using mandates or restrictions to stop the outbreak.

“We will continue to rely on messaging, outreach and try to build trust between health care workers and people in these high-risk areas,” Roussin said.

Measles was not mentioned in the promotion for other events, such as Morden’s Feb. 14 Winterfest event and a country and gospel concert held in Winkler last weekend.

There are no official guidelines for large events in the province.

But after a measles demonstration in January at Ag Days in Brandon – an event billed as Canada’s largest indoor farm show – As a result of dozens of confirmed cases, and another exposure at a Winnipeg Jets game, the province was put on alert.

“Sharing the same airspace with someone who has measles poses a risk of transmission,” Roussin said.

“So our message is that if you have not been vaccinated, especially if you are high-risk or you are around people who are high-risk, you really need to consider the risks involved in attending very large gatherings.”

As part of its vaccination outreach last spring, Southern Health set up a vaccination clinic at the kindergarten to Grade 3 Southwood School in the village of Schanzenfeld, six kilometers south of Winkler.

Dan Ward, superintendent of the Winkler-area Garden Valley School Division, did not respond to an interview request, but said in an email that the division is working closely with Southern Health to notify families and staff at risk, and has sent a measles information sheet to students’ families.

The message is not reaching everyone

Some people at Winkler Mall didn’t realize there was an outbreak.

Graham Thiessen was back in town from Alberta to visit his family.

“This is the first time I’m hearing about it,” he said.

Other Winkler Mall visitors who spoke to CBC also said they didn’t realize there was an outbreak.

Michael DePauw of Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, about 60 kilometers northwest of Winkler, had not heard of the measles outbreak, but said he had been vaccinated.

DePauw is concerned about low vaccination rates.

“They think it should be their right to choose, but it’s affecting everyone’s health because they’re making their own personal choices.

“But in a society where there is not enough vaccination, no one is as effectively immunized as they should be,” he said.

“In the good old days, everyone got vaccinated in school and that was it.”