Saskatchewan's chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

No HIV emergency declaration needed for Saskatchewan, top doctor says

By Jacob Bamhour May 18, 2026 | 10:00 AM

Saskatchewan’s top doctor said the province is not following Manitoba’s lead by declaring a public health emergency over rising HIV cases, even as Saskatchewan continues to see increases in parts of the province.

Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said Saskatchewan is dealing with some of the same post-pandemic pressures as Manitoba, but an emergency declaration would not give the province any new powers.

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“We already have many of those things in place,” Shahab said. “We have full access to medications at no cost.”

Manitoba declared a public health emergency on May 7 after new HIV cases climbed from 90 in 2019 to 328 in 2025. The province said the declaration was meant to support a more co-ordinated response across governments, health systems and community organizations.

Shahab said he listened to the technical briefing from his counterpart in Manitoba, but Saskatchewan’s situation is different under its public health legislation.

“At this point, for us in Saskatchewan, the way our public health acts and regulations are, the declaration of emergency won’t give us any additional tools,” he said. “We already have those tools.”

The province released a refreshed testing policy in June 2025 and a multi-year action plan for sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections in October 2025.

Shahab said Saskatchewan has seen increases in HIV in several areas, including Saskatoon, the Prince Albert area and some remote communities.

He said the risk is not spread evenly across the province, but can move through smaller social networks where people may not know they have HIV.

“When you get HIV, you get fever, you feel lousy for a few weeks, and that’s a high risk of HIV transmission because your viral loads are high,” he said. “But then your viral loads come down a bit, but you feel fine for a few years, and so unless you get tested, you don’t even know you have HIV.”

Shahab said that is why broad testing becomes important when new cases or clusters are found.

Testing, treatment and keeping people connected to care are the main pieces of Saskatchewan’s response, he said.

“The work happens at the ground level, person by person,” Shahab said.

He said HIV treatment is fully covered in Saskatchewan, and people at higher risk can access pre-exposure prophylaxis, also known as PrEP.

“Once you’re on treatment, your viral load gets suppressed, and so you no longer transmit,” he said.

Shahab said stigma remains a barrier, especially for people who may already be dealing with substance use, unstable housing or past negative experiences with the health-care system.

“We have to make sure that we don’t stigmatize individuals because of their lifestyles or risk factors, but we make it easy for people to seek testing in a non-judgmental way,” he said.

He said Saskatchewan will continue to monitor HIV trends and adjust its response as needed.

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