Health Officials Seek to Dispense Facts on LA, NY Meningitis Cases

Health officials are speaking out about the recent meningitis cases across the country in an effort to educate the public about the latest outbreak. After incorrectly giving the press news that West Hollywood attorney Brett Shaad had been taken off life support on Friday, West Hollywood Councilman John Duran also speculated about where he might have contracted the disease.

The L.A. Times reports:

Shaad was declared legally brain dead from the disease Friday. His
family took him off life support at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles
on Saturday night.

"The doctors don't know where or how Brett contracted meningitis," Ashford said….

…Shaad was declared legally brain dead from the disease Friday. His
family took him off life support at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles
on Saturday night.

"The doctors don't know where or how Brett contracted meningitis," Ashford said.

Some of the facts regarding meningitis and this particular case:

"This is not a disease transmittable mainly by sexual contact," said Dr. Parveen Kaur of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "It's spread by respiratory droplets, which means you can be sitting and having a prolonged conversation with somebody and spread the disease without having sex. It can also be transmitted through saliva and intimate activities."

…Many people who have bacterial meningitis "are asymptomatic carriers who themselves are not ill," said Dr. Otto Yang, a UCLA medical professor and expert on infectious diseases. "This is extremely preventable with vaccinations: People who were in contact with the person who died should seriously consider it."

Los Angeles County officials have not determined whether Shaad was afflicted with the same strain that killed gay men in New York, Ashford said.

Shaad, who graduated from Boston College and attended Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, would take long weekend trips abroad with friends, to destinations as far flung as Colombia, Brazil, Hawaii and Asia, Ashford said. "He'd been to China in the two weeks prior to his death."

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is also offering free vaccines. Info here.