Free meningitis vaccines will be offered beginning Monday by AIDS Healthcare Foundation at three locations throughout Los Angeles, officials announced Sunday.
The vaccine is being offered in response to a recent outbreak among gay men in New York, where seven of the 13 who were infected died. On Friday, Brett Shaad, a 33-year-old lawyer from West Hollywood, also died within one week of feeling ill.
"As a public health outreach, AHF will now offer the meningitis vaccine for free at our Hollywood and West Hollywood AHF Pharmacy sites and at our Hollywood Men's Wellness Center to anyone who thinks that they are at risk or have had exposure-particularly, those in the MSM (men who have sex with men) population," Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said in a statement. "We are prepared to offer up to 10,000 vaccinations for free at these three AHF locations and will consider adding additional AHF sites should there be a need or demand. It is my hope that the Health Department of the County of Los Angeles and CDC will also step up to the plate long before we get to those levels, if there is found to be a need to do so."
Shaad may have contracted meningitis at the White Party, an annual gathering of gay men in Palm Springs over the Easter Weekend, according to published reports. The germs that cause bacterial meningitis can be contagious, but less so than the common cold or the flu, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "The bacteria can be spread when there is close or long contact with a sick person in the same household or daycare center," or between two people through kissing, CDC officials say. When caught early, meningitis can be effectively treated, according to the CDC.
But the outbreak in New York is seen as a precedent, officials from AHF said.
"However, the chance of a large scale outbreak of this disease is relatively small, and getting infected usually requires close personal contact and exposure to body fluids of an infected person," said Otto Yang, M.D., Scientific Director for AIDS Healthcare Foundation and an Infectious Diseases physician.
"Persons at highest risk are those who have close exposures to many persons, such as students in dormitories or military personnel in barracks, and persons with weakened immune systems," Yang said.
The vaccine is being offered at the following locations to anyone who thinks they are at risk.
--AHF Pharmacy/West Hollywood, 8212 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., from Monday through Saturday.
--AHF Pharmacy/Sunset (Hollywood), 6210 W. Sunset Blvd., 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
--AHF Hollywood Men's Wellness Center, 1300 N. Vermont Ave., Suite 407, Los Angeles. from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday, and Wednesday through Friday, and 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
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