By The Huffington Post News Editors
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles public health officials Wednesday began offering free bacterial meningitis vaccinations to low-income and uninsured residents after the deaths of two LA county residents within the past six months.
Public Health Director Dr. Jonathan Fielding said in a press conference that there was no continuing outbreak of bacterial meningitis. Nevertheless, vaccines would be available to those who felt concerned about contracting the disease, he said. He stopped short of recommending that gay men get the vaccine, which is what activists like Michael Weinstein of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation have been pushing since the death of 33-year-old West Hollywood resident Brett Shaad on April 13.
When news broke Tuesday about the December death of another gay man, Rjay Spoon, due to bacterial meningitis, Weinstein criticized the Public Health Department and compared the deaths in the gay community to the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.
From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/17/bacterial-meningitis-los-angeles-deaths_n_3096113.html