American health officials have issued an urgent travel warning for parts of Canada over the spread of a highly contagious disease.
The CDC has issued a level 1 travel advisory for Americans heading to the province of Manitoba, Canada, over an outbreak of hepatitis A, a liver infection that spreads from contaminated food and drinks and from person to person.
Since the outbreak began in April 2025, 658 Manitoba residents have been sickened and 142 have been hospitalized, five have been admitted to intensive care and four have died, according to the province’s health department.
Of those infected, 143 were in Manitoba’s capital, Winnipeg, which has nearly 850,000 residents and is Canada’s seventh-largest city.
Health authorities warned the disease, which infects 1,600 to 3,300 Americans and about 250 Canadians every year, has an incubation period of 28 days, meaning people can unknowingly expose others in crowded environments for nearly a month before symptoms appear.
Hepatitis A can be asymptomatic, but those who do develop symptoms may experience weakness, sudden nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, clay-colored stools, dark urine and joint pain. The illness can also cause itching and jaundice of the skin or eyes, which are signs of liver damage.
While most people recover on their own, hepatitis A can lead to fulminant hepatitis, a rare form of liver failure caused by severe inflammation.
When the liver can no longer filter toxins out of the blood, those substances build up and travel to vital organs like the brain.