{"id":93615,"date":"2026-06-18T10:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T10:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/93615\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T10:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T10:53:08","slug":"winnipeg-outreach-groups-vaccinating-staff-to-stomp-hepatitis-a-outbreak-largely-affecting-homeless-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/93615\/","title":{"rendered":"Winnipeg outreach groups vaccinating staff to ‘stomp’ hepatitis A outbreak largely affecting homeless"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0 number of outreach organizations working with Winnipeg’s homeless population are helping their staff get vaccinated against hepatitis A to prevent the spread of the virus among some of the most vulnerable.<\/p>\n

“As long as hepatitis A continues to be a challenge out there, then I think it’s incumbent on all of us to do what we can to prevent the spread \u2026 and to stomp it out if we can,” said Marion Willis, the founder and executive director of Street Links.<\/p>\n

The not-for-profit is one of at least three Winnipeg outreach organizations that have been working over recent weeks to create a plan and vaccinate staff or volunteers against the virus responsible for the highly contagious liver infection.<\/a><\/p>\n

Street Links hosted a vaccination clinic on Tuesday at their building on St. Mary’s Road , where at least six workers rolled up their sleeves to get a vaccine shot against the virus, including Michelle Wesley.<\/p>\n

She has noticed how in recent weeks a number of Street Links’ unhoused clients are either dealing with or recovering from hepatitis A.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been with Street Links for five years and I never seen us actually have an outbreak like what we’ve had in the past month,” she said. “It is concerning.”<\/p>\n

Wesley decided to get vaccinated because she doesn’t want to contract the virus and spread it to makeshift shelters or tents that she visits when working with people experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n

\"Cases<\/p>\n

Dr. Brent Roussin, the province’s chief public health officer, says the one dose of the hepatitis A vaccine is more than 90 per cent effective at preventing the virus. (CBC)<\/p>\n

“It can be very easily transmitted that way,” Wesley said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Brent Roussin, the province’s chief public health officer, said those working with unhoused people are at increased risk of contracting the virus.<\/p>\n

That’s because they are in contact with environments that favour the spread of the illness, like crowded settings with limited access to hand hygiene.<\/p>\n

In Winnipeg, Roussin said a large number of hepatitis A transmissions are happening within the homeless population, predominantly in younger people who don’t have pre-existing immunity.<\/p>\n

Those experiencing homelessness were already eligible to get vaccinated against hepatitis A before the ongoing outbreak of the virus started in Manitoba in April 2025, according to Roussin.<\/p>\n

But facing a significant number of hepatitis A transmissions in Winnipeg, the province expanded vaccine eligibility in May for workers of community-based organizations that serve the city’s homeless population.<\/a><\/p>\n

“It’s not a large number of people. We didn’t have to consider our vaccine supply when making that decision,” Roussin said.<\/p>\n

“That single dose there provides well into the 90s per cent of protection.”<\/p>\n

Taking ‘every precaution we can’<\/p>\n

As of June 4, there have been 784 reported cases of hepatitis A associated with the ongoing outbreak, a provincial spokesperson told CBC News. The virus has also claimed the lives of four people in the province and recently prompted a travel alert by the national public health agency of the United States.<\/a><\/p>\n

At least five patients treated for hepatitis A were discharged to Street Links’ bed program for hospital patients, Willis said.<\/p>\n

Workers at the organization also recently helped a person seek medical attention who turned out to have the virus.<\/p>\n

With staff and volunteers visiting encampments and offering outreach services daily, Willis said having staff vaccinated can help stop the transmission of hepatitis A.<\/p>\n

“That underlines in bold for us just how important it is, you know, that everybody is vaccinated,” she said.<\/p>\n

Street Links is working with public health to host at least one more vaccination clinic for hepatitis in the coming weeks. Similar to the last one, anyone eligible could receive the shot, including those experiencing homelessness, Willis said.<\/p>\n

The North End Women\u2019s Centre already has a clinic scheduled for next week for staff who wish to get vaccinated, in light of the increased risk faced by those working in the sector, according to a spokesperson for the organization.<\/p>\n

At Winnipeg’s Mino Pimatisiwin Sexual Wellness Lodge, public health nurses were made available to administer hepatitis A vaccines during two of their drop-in service days, including one in May.<\/p>\n

Manager Laverne Gervais said staff at the lodge had the opportunity to get the vaccine and to her understanding 15 to 20 members are now vaccinated against the virus.<\/p>\n

Once the vaccination eligibility was expanded and the resources were offered to them, Gervais said Mino Pimatisiwin jumped at the opportunity.<\/p>\n

Some of their members do street outreach work for STI prevention and treatment among vulnerable populations, including those experiencing homelessness. With that job, vaccination is important, Gervais said.<\/p>\n

“We just take every precaution we can,” Gervais said.<\/p>\n

“Keeping everybody healthy and safe, not just staff, but people who come in as well \u2026 it goes both ways, right? Like \u2026 neither party wants to pass on anything to the other.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u00a0 number of outreach organizations working with Winnipeg’s homeless population are helping their staff get vaccinated against hepatitis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[35103,35101,19887,35099,2379,35100,35104,31117,35102,84],"class_list":["post-93615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-brent-roussin","tag-hepatitis","tag-hepatitis-a","tag-hepatitis-a-vaccine","tag-homeless-population","tag-marion-willis","tag-michelle-wesley","tag-staff","tag-street-links","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}