West Hollywood city councilor John Duran is urging people who attended California’s Palm Springs’ White Party over the Easter weekend to get vaccinated against meningitis after one of his constituents died from the disease.

Gay lawyer Brett Shaad, 31, (pictured) died at around 4.45pm yesterday after being taken off life support.

Shaad had fallen into a coma and become brain dead from the disease earlier in the week.

He had been one of around 10,000 people who had attended the popular gay circuit party which attracts party goers from across the US.

His death follows a cluster of bacterial meningitis deaths among men who have sex with men in New York and calls by health officials there for men who have sex with men to get immunized.

22 gay men in New York have come down with severe bacterial meningitis since 2010 and seven of those cases have been fatal.

Los Angeles County Department of Health Director Jonathan

‘We don’t want to panic people but we learned 30 years ago the consequences of delay in the response to AIDS,’ John Duran told the Los Angeles Times.

‘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.’

‘We don’t know yet if we can make that connection between individuals at the White Party and [Shaad]. We don’t want to be alarmist … but at the same time, we’d rather be alarmist than sit back.’

Fielding told the Los Angeles Times that there were some similarities to the New York strain but said, ‘it’s not identical.’

Friends and family members posted tributes to Shadd on social media after learning of his death.

‘There are no words that can express what so many of us are feeling right now,’ one friend wrote.

‘Just know that we love you and our love goes out to your family. I’m going to miss your devilish smile as we dance the night away or just pass the afternoon bouncing around the beach or down the street.’

Meningitis is inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord and the most common symptoms are headache, fever, neck stiffness, confusion, vomiting and an inability to tolerate light or loud noises.

Meningitis is spread by close contact with nose and throat discharges from a person who is infected. Close contact includes living in the same household as an infected person or intimate activities, including kissing and sexual contact.

The Meningitis vaccine will prevent invasive meningococcal disease from taking root but does not treat the disease if a person is already infected.

UPDATE: Late Saturday evening the Shaad family circulated a statement contradicting Duran’s assertion that Brett had already been taken off life support on Friday.

While Brett was brain dead when he held the press conference, Duran was incorrect in saying that life support had been shut off.

Life support has since been shut off.

‘Tonight our family made the incredibly difficult decision to remove my brother Brett from life support. He died peacefully surrounded by our family and friends,’ said brother Brian Shaad.

‘Brett was an extraordinary person. He was a loving son, brother and grandson, an attorney with a deep passion for social justice, and a dear friend to so many people. We cannot believe that this wonderful person is gone. We love you Brett.’

‘The Shaad family asks for privacy at this painful time, which has been made more devastating by irresponsible and inaccurate reports on the circumstances of Brett’s death,’ said family spokeswoman Elizabeth Ashford.

‘The family wants, and will pursue, answers for how and why this happened.’

Brett was being treated at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Beverly Hills, California.

To GSN’s knowledge, the family have not disputed Brett’s attendance at the White Party.