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Manitoba health officials are urging parents to ensure their children’s vaccinations are current before the new school year begins, with particular concern focused on the Southern Health Region, where childhood immunization rates rank lowest in the province.
Southern Health Region Faces Serious Immunization Gap
The Southern Health Region’s most recent population health assessment reveals a troubling shortfall in vaccine coverage for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and meningococcal disease. Only slightly more than 53 percent of seven-year-olds in the region are current on their measles vaccinations — roughly 13 percentage points below the next-lowest area in Manitoba.
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Dr. Mahmoud Khodaveisi of the Southern Health Region says officials are calling on parents to stay alert as students return to classrooms. “For immunization, the uptick was higher compared to previous years but I have to mention the rate is much below the ideal goals,” he said. “With the fall and the weather starting to become more cold and people starting to stay inside, we’re hoping that this doesn’t happen again and we don’t have many cases of measles.”
Measles cases in Manitoba peaked at 177 confirmed infections in February 2026, before dropping to just eight in June. However, the province has recorded 680 confirmed cases so far this year, along with 52 hospitalizations and six ICU admissions. More than 82 percent of those cases involved people who had received no doses of the vaccine.
Manitoba Relies on Education Rather Than Mandates
Unlike Ontario and New Brunswick — the only two Canadian provinces that currently require proof of vaccination for in-person school attendance — Manitoba has no plans to reinstate a similar mandate. The province previously held such a requirement, but authorities repealed it. Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin says the current approach centers on information and community trust.
“Our stance still is to try to provide as much information as possible to dispel the extreme amount of disinformation,” Roussin said. “We’re here to build trust again, we’re here to build connections.” Provincial health teams are currently working directly with families in communities across Manitoba to encourage vaccine uptake.
The contrast with provinces that maintain school vaccine requirements is stark. Ontario recorded just 31 confirmed measles cases in 2026, compared to Manitoba’s 680. Dawn Bowdish, a professor of medicine at McMaster University, says mandatory vaccination policies have proven effective at driving awareness and compliance.
“It’s thought this contributes to parents becoming aware of their child not being up to date,” Bowdish said. “Oftentimes people have no issue with being vaccinated but maybe they moved provinces or they’ve had some disruptions during their childhood vaccine schedule and they simply don’t know that they’re not up to date — and most of these vaccines require two, three or four shots.”
Experts Weigh Vaccine Risks Against Disease Consequences
Bowdish acknowledges that vaccines carry potential side effects parents should understand. Children may experience fatigue, achiness, irritability and fever following immunization. She cautions that these reactions, while temporary, can be disruptive for families. “We can’t underestimate how disruptive those fevers can be, but those pass,” she said.
Health Canada notes that combining the MMR vaccine with the varicella shot — which protects against chickenpox and shingles — raises the risk of fever-triggered seizures in children aged 12 to 23 months. That risk occurs in approximately one out of every 2,300 to 2,800 cases.
Despite these considerations, Bowdish stresses that the vaccines themselves, including those for measles and mumps, have been in use in their current forms for decades. She argues the calculus remains clear. “No matter how you do the math, the consequences of having one of these infections always outweighs some of the small but present risks of having a vaccine,” she said.
Early symptoms of measles include fever and blotchy red rashes. Without treatment, the disease can progress to serious complications such as lung infection or brain inflammation, making timely vaccination especially critical as children gather in schools each fall.
