Brett Shaad: WeHo Attorney Succumbs to Rare Meningococcal Infection Prompting Warning From City Officials

Brett Shaad (via his Facebook profile.)

By Brian Hews

(West Hollywood, CA)  The death of a well known attorney in West Hollywood has prompted city officials to issued a strong warning regarding meningococcal infection, a bacteria-caused illness that can lead to potentially deadly meningitis.

“We don’t want to panic people,” said West Hollywood Councilmember John Duran. “But we learned 30 years ago the consequences of delay in the response to AIDS. We are sounding the alarm that sexually active gay men need to be aware that we have a strain of meningitis that is deadly on our hands,” continued Duran.

Duran told a major daily newspaper in Los Angeles on Friday that resident Brett Shaad died at about 4:45 p.m. after being taken off life support.  According to Shaad’s Facebook profile he studied Real Estate Law at Benjamin N. Cardoza School of Law and was an Associate Broker of Commercial and Residential Properties at KW Commercial.

Infectious diseases such as meningococcal infection tend to spread more quickly where larger groups of people gather together. College students living in dormitories and military personnel are at increased risk for meningococcal meningitis as well as people with weakened immune systems such as those living with HIV/AIDS.

“Fortunately, most of the bacteria that cause meningitis are not as contagious as diseases like the common cold or the flu. Also, the bacteria are not spread by casual contact or by simply breathing the air where a person with meningitis has been,” a statement from the City of West Hollywood noted.

Meningitis infection may show up in a person by a sudden onset of fever, headache, and stiff neck. It will often have other symptoms which include:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Increased sensitivity to light (photophobia)
• Altered mental status (confusion)

The symptoms of bacterial meningitis can appear quickly or over several days. Typically they develop within three to seven days after exposure.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been alerted about a Los Angeles County case of meningococcal infection. Tests are being conducted to determine the imprint of this strain, which is not a new one. There may be similarities to an especially deadly strain of meningococcal infection found recently in New York that has resulted in twenty-two cases, including seven fatalities since 2010. The outbreak in New York City involved a strain circulating among men who have sex with men and may be transmitted during intimate encounters including sex.

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