LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three of eight people who contracted bacterial meningitis this year have died, and all three had sex with other men, Los Angeles County health officials said Thursday. 
 
 The confirmation came a day after the Department of Public Health urged gay men who had HIV or multiple partners to be vaccinated against invasive meningococcal disease. 
 
 However, the department said the three men who died didn't have any direct contact with each other. The disease still is considered rare and sporadic and the department is shying away from declaring any outbreak in the gay community, authorities said. 
 
 Four of the eight people who came down with the illness had sex with other men and three were HIV positive. The three who died in February and March were 27 or 28 years old and two were HIV positive, according to the department. 
 
 Of the other five people who fell ill, four are out of the hospital and one is hospitalized but recovering. 
 
 The agency was "insensitive" for failing to announce the deaths earlier, Michael Weinstein, executive director for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, told the Los Angeles Daily News (http://bit.ly/1kwlf53). 
 
 "We're the largest HIV/AIDS medical care provider in the nation, and they didn't tell us," said Weinstein, a critic who has called the health department a "bloated bureaucracy." 
 
 About a third of the 32 bacterial meningitis cases reported in the county since October 2012 involved men who had sex with men, the Daily News reported. 
 
 That population is most at risk right now, said Dr. Robert Bolan, medical director for the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. 
 
 However, the county health department is "paying attention" and acting "in a timely manner" by urging vaccinations for members of the gay community, he told the newspaper. 
 
 Bacterial meningitis infected 22 gay men, killing seven, in New York City between 2010 and last year. However, Los Angeles County health officials have said the local cases aren't related. 
 
 Invasive meningococcal disease is relatively uncommon and is less contagious than the flu. 
 
 However, it can be spread through close contact with saliva or mucus — such as sneezing, coughing, kissing or sharing drinks or cigarettes. 
 
 The disease can be treated with antibiotics if caught early but if the infection spreads it can lead to brain damage, hearing loss or death. 
 
 The health department is offering free vaccinations are being offered to those without health insurance. ||||| Three gay men sickened from meningitis in L.A. County have died, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said Thursday. 
 
 
 
 The department announced earlier this week that there have been eight cases of invasive meningococcal disease in the county so far this year. Four cases occurred in men who have sex with men. On Thursday, officials said three of them had died, officials said. The victims were 27 or 28. 
 
 Some of those sickened lived or socialized in West Hollywood and North Hollywood, officials said. 
 
 The county will provide free vaccinations for patients without health insurance, starting Thursday. Those interested can call 211 or visit the department's website to get a listing of provider clinics. 
 
 Invasive meningococcal disease stems from a rare bacterial infection that can spread to the blood, brain or spinal cord and can affect the entire body -- sometimes causing death. 
 
 It is spread by close exposure to sneezing or coughing or direct contact with saliva or nose mucus -- though it's less contagious than influenza, the health department said. 
 
 Activities associated with risk for the illness include smoking, close contact with an infected person such as kissing or sharing beverages or cigarettes, and living in group settings for prolonged periods. 
 
 Symptoms of the illness usually strike within five days of exposure to the bacteria, and may include a high fever, stiff neck, aversion to bright light and aches. 
 
 The bacterial strain most common in Los Angeles is covered by the current meningitis vaccine. After occurrences in recent months, students at Princeton University in New Jersey and UC Santa Barbara were offered access to another vaccine, not yet approved for use in the U.S., to prevent a different form of the disease. 
 
 [Updated 8:50 p.m. April 3: Robert Bolan, the medical director at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, said there is cause for concern in the gay community because the infection rate is higher in men who have sex with men and especially higher in those who are HIV positive. 
 
 
 
 Bolan said it is unclear why the disease seems to affect gay men specifically, though the weakened immune systems of people who are HIV positive might make them more susceptible. 
 
 
 
 Of the four L.A. County cases reported among gay men, three involved men who were HIV positive, county health officials said. 
 
 
 
 “I think the important thing to understand is this is not an epidemic,” Bolan said. “But there’s a pretty strong signal that men who have sex with men, at least those who are HIV positive, are at increased risk for invasive meningococcal disease.” 
 
 
 
 The deaths come less than a year after L.A. gay’s community grappled with another meningitis scare. 
 
 
 
 Brett Shaad, a 33-year-old West Hollywood resident and attorney, contracted meningitis in April 2013 after attending a gathering of gay men in Palm Springs. He died days later. 
 
 
 
 The AIDS Healthcare Foundation responded by offering free meningitis vaccines. County health officials eventually offered the vaccine for low-income and uninsured residents. 
 
 West Hollywood Councilman John Duran said he hopes more specifics about the three deaths emerge. The men died at least a week ago, and Duran said he’d like to know why the county didn’t announce it sooner. 
 
 
 
 “Three deaths in three months, it's a lot in one community,” said Duran, who is running for L.A. County supervisor. “It's disproportionate to the numbers of gay men that are in the general population. It's a bigger tragedy that they're all young men in their 20s... It’s like a bad dream, like a bad deja vu.”] 
 
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– Three gay men in their late 20s have died from a bacterial meningitis in the Los Angeles area so far this year, with another five people having come down with the illness. Four of the cases involved gay men and three were HIV positive, the Los Angeles Times reports; two of those who died were HIV positive. None of the deceased, who died in February or March, had been in direct contact with each other, the AP notes. "I think the important thing to understand is this is not an epidemic," the medical director of the LA Gay and Lesbian Center says. "But there's a pretty strong signal that men who have sex with men, at least those who are HIV positive, are at increased risk for invasive meningococcal disease." Yesterday's news of the deaths comes almost exactly a year after meningitis—a disease spread by contact with saliva or nose mucus—killed another LA man, and a day after the Department of Public Health urged gay men who are HIV positive, or have multiple partners, to get vaccinated. The county is now offering free vaccinations for those without health insurance. "It's like a bad dream, like a bad deja vu," said a councilman. "Three deaths in three months, it's a lot in one community ... It's a bigger tragedy that they're all young men in their 20s." Of the other five cases, all but one are out of the hospital.