Former MuchMusic VJ Juliette Powell, 54, died 'unexpectedly': What to know about bacterial meningitis
Juliette Powell, a former MuchMusic VJ and author, has died. The 54-year-old, who appeared on Canadian television in the '90s as a host of Electric Circus and French Kiss died on June 3 after a brief illness. According to her obituary, Powell, who was born in the U.S. but raised in Montréal, "succumbed unexpectedly" due to acute bacterial meningitis.
"Juliette had a magical way of drawing people in with her infectious enthusiasm, and her brilliant intelligence and gorgeous smile lit up every room she ever entered," reads her obituary. "Her loss is devastating and she will be deeply, painfully missed by so many."
This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Contact a qualified medical professional before engaging in any physical activity, or making any changes to your diet, medication or lifestyle.
In 1989, Powell became the first Black woman to be crowned Miss Canada. She joined MusiquePlus as a VJ in 1992 before going on to join MuchMusic in 1996. Eventually, she transitioned out of music and became a business reporter for CablePulse24. Following her career in television, she authored several books including The AI Dilemma: 7 Principles for Responsible Technology in 2023.
So, what is bacterial meningitis and what are the signs and symptoms? Read on to learn everything you need to know about the condition.
Meningitis is the inflammation of the lining around the brain and spinal cord membranes, typically caused by an infection, bacteria or sometimes fungi.
According to Meningitis Foundation Canada, untreated bacterial meningitis is a "medical emergency" and can be "fatal in a few hours." Those who do recover can have permanent disabilities, such as brain damage, hearing loss and learning disabilities.
The condition usually spreads through close contact to bacteria or virus, such as cold or flu germs. As such, sneezing, coughing, kissing and close physical contact can cause the germs to spread. Because it is difficult to stop the transmission of bacteria, prevention is essential.
Bacterial meningitis is diagnosed by a medical professional after analyzing a sample of spinal fluid from the patient.
This condition can often be mistaken for another life-threatening illness, sepsis, which is the body's extreme response to infection. Sepsis happens when an infection triggers a chain reaction throughout your body. Without timely treatment, sepsis can quickly lead to tissue damage, organ failure and death.
That the timing of bacterial meningitis symptoms can vary widely. Some people can get sick within a few hours of contracting the condition, while it may take others one to three days to show symptoms.
Typically, early symptoms, occurring within the first six hours, include fever, headache, irritability, nausea and vomiting.
Later symptoms occurring within six to 12 hours involve fever, muscle aches, leg pain and pale skin.
After 12 hours, symptoms usually include cold hands and feet, stiff neck or neck pain, rash, confusion or delirium and decreasing responsiveness.
If you or someone you know is experiencing any of the above symptoms, seek medical attention immediately.
Certain risk factors can increase a person's risk for getting bacterial meningitis. The risk factors include:
Age: Babies or young children are more likely to contract bacterial meningitis due to their weakened immune systems. That said, people of any age can develop the condition.
Group settings: Meningitis tends to spread where large groups of people gather or live in close quarters, such as college dorms or music festivals.
Certain medical conditions: Some medical conditions, medications or surgical procedures put people at increased risk for contracting bacterial meningitis. For example, having an HIV infection or not having a spleen can increase a person's risk for the condition.
There are many ways to help prevent bacterial meningitis.
Firstly, different vaccines can help protect against certain types of bacterial meningitis. There are vaccines for four types of bacteria that can cause the condition.
Additionally, maintaining good health, washing your hands often, staying home when you're sick and having a strong immune system can protect us from most causes. Oftentimes we carry meningitis germs with no ill effects.
However, if your immune system is compromised due to cancer treatments, HIV, organ transplants, infection or other serious health issues, speak with your doctor about how to help protect against meningitis.
Lastly, seeking medical attention as soon as symptoms appear is essential. Moreover, as the condition is contagious, if you've been around someone who has it, call your healthcare provider to discuss how to keep from getting sick.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Sickle Cell Awareness: Hampton Roads teen siblings diagnosed at birth
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Sickle Cell Disease is the most common inherited blood disorder in the United States, affecting the lives of 100,000 people, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Teen siblings, Morgan Tarrer, 15, and Olivia Tarrer, 19, of Virginia Beach represent that number. Data from the CDC also shows approximately 1 in 365 Black or African American newborns are born with SCD, which is the case for Morgan and Olivia, whose parents are carriers. The two were diagnosed at birth and are left with no choice but to embrace their condition as there is still no cure. 'So I have an abnormality of my Hemoglobin,' says Khristina Reid, Virginia Sickle Cell Network founder and mother of Morgan and Olivia. 'So I carry the C-gene, and Olivia and Morgan's dad, he carries the S-gene. Together our children have both genes. The S and C-gene. So they live with Hemoglobin S-C Disease. While there have been many advances in treating sickle cell disease, the reality for the siblings and others is reduced life expectancy and the probability of health complications. 'It's something that I've found is always on your mind,' says Olivia. 'I'm in college. I'm up in New York, so I'm very far from my family. And I've realized, especially living in dorms, being around with friends, that you have to be extra, extra careful. Because with sickle cell, you're very, immunocompromised.' CDC finding reveal, more than 90% of people diagnosed with sickle cell in the US are non-Hispanic black or African American. 'So the reason is, sickle cell disease was the body's kind of defense mechanism against malaria,' says Reid. 'So you will find the highest prevalence of sickle cell disease in your, locations that are near the equator. So Nigeria right now is the, largest country, with the largest population of people living with sickle cell disease.' Those diagnosed with SCD can range in symptoms from frequent infections, anemia, episodes of pain, problems with vision and tiredness. Olivia's says she experiences a great deal of fatigue. While she remains optimistic, there's always concern about her years ahead. 'That has been a problem in school for me,' she says. 'I remember last not last year, but my senior year of high school. All through high school, it was a struggle getting to school because we had it so early. I think the most challenging part is uncertainty about the future. I'm in film. I'm a NYU film, and it's a very physical job. It's also a very, You have to be up early, go to sleep late. And that's when I do that. When I am on set, it's very strenuous, and I worry that I won't be able to be at the same caliber, as my peers.' For information on the Virginia Sickle Cell Network, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Church hosts conference to address mental health in the Black community
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in 2023, suicide was the third leading cause of death among African Americans ages 15 to 34 in the U.S. Pastor Dianne Young with the Healing Center says this is why her church gathered professionals from across the country to educate people about depression and break the silence surrounding suicide in the Black community. 'We want to be able to let people talk freely about their struggles. We mention that we have them, but we don't talk about it,' said Pastor Young. Her church hosted the National Suicide and Black Church Conference at Southwest Community College. 📡 for Memphis and the Mid-South. 📧 and have the latest top stories sent right to your inbox. 'There was a theory that it didn't happen to Black people or African-Americans, but we found out it did from our own personal experiences,' she said. Executive Director of the American Psychiatric Association Foundation, Rawle Andrews Jr., says the stigma surrounding depression among Black people stems from three things: fear, shame, and discrimination. 'We were already thought to be less than human or second class, and then when I tell you I'm struggling with a mental health condition, now I'm leaning into the perception that I'm less than. I'm less than human,' said Andrews Jr. The APA says some of the common warning signs include talking or writing about death, withdrawal from friends and family, dramatic mood changes, and increased alcohol or drug use. 'If you don't see that person for a couple of days and their body language changes, get interested. Get curious,' said a workshop speaker. 'This is teaching you all to recognize, not diagnose, because when you diagnose somebody inappropriately, that can feel like a judgment or a label. Don't do that.' If you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis, experts encourage you to call the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
New paper sheds light on experience of Black prisoners in infamous Stateville prison malaria experiments
Much has been said and written over the years about controversial malaria research conducted on inmates at Illinois' Stateville Penitentiary starting in the 1940s. But at least one part of that story has been largely ignored until now: the role of Black prisoners in that research, which helped lead to the modern practice of using genetic testing to understand how individual patients will react to certain medications, according to the authors of a newly published paper out of the University of Utah. 'We want to highlight the stories of Black prisoners that participated in this prison research in the 1950s onward and give them their due,' said Hannah Allen, a medical ethicist and assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and first author of the paper, which was published as an opinion piece Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. 'They haven't been properly acknowledged in the past, and their participation in these studies was really foundational in launching the field of pharmacogenetics and, later on, precision medicine,' said Allen, who recently completed her doctorate at the University of Utah. Starting in the 1940s, researchers infected inmates at the Joliet-area prison with malaria to test the effectiveness of drugs to treat the illness as part of a U.S. military-funded effort to protect American troops overseas, according to the paper. A University of Chicago doctor was the principal investigator. The inmates consented to being part of the studies and were paid for their participation. At first, the research was greeted with enthusiasm. In 1945, Life magazine ran a spread about it, featuring a photo of a Stateville inmate with cups containing malaria-carrying mosquitoes pressed against his bare chest. The first line of the story reads, 'In three U.S. penitentiaries men who have been imprisoned as enemies of society are now helping science fight another enemy of society.' But as the years passed, attitudes began to shift. Questions arose about whether inmates could truly, freely consent to participate in medical experiments or whether they felt coerced into them because of their often dire circumstances. At the Nuremberg trials, defense attorneys for Nazi doctors introduced text and images from the Life article about Stateville prison, though an Illinois physician argued at the trials that the prisoners in Stateville consented to being part of medical research whereas Nazi prisoners did not, according to the JAMA paper. In the mid-1970s, news broke about a study at Tuskegee, in which Black men with syphilis went untreated for years — news that raised awareness of ethical problems in medical research. News outlets also began publishing more stories about prison research, according to the JAMA article. The Chicago Tribune published an article in 1973, in which an inmate participating in the Stateville malaria research said: 'I've been coerced into the project — for the money. Being here has nothing to do with 'doing good for mankind' … I didn't want to keep taking money from my family.' The experiments at Stateville came to a halt in the 1970s. A number of protections and regulations are now in place when it comes to research involving prisoners. Since the 1970s, the Stateville research has often been discussed and analyzed but little attention has been paid to its Black participants, said James Tabery, a medical ethicist and philosophy professor at the University of Utah who led the new research, which was funded by the federal National Institutes of Health. For a time, Black prisoners were excluded from the studies because of a myth that Black people were immune to malaria, Tabery said. Later on, once scientists had pinpointed the drug primaquine as an effective medication for malaria, they turned their attention to the question of why 5% to 10% of Black men experienced a violent reaction to the drug, according to the paper. Ultimately, the scientists were successful, finding that the adverse reaction was related to a specific genetic deficiency. 'There are people all over Chicago today that are getting tested, that clinicians are recommending they get a genetic test before they get prescribed a drug because they want to make sure that their patient isn't going to have an adverse reaction to the drug,' Tabery said. 'It's really sort of powerful and interesting that you can trace that approach to doing good clinical medicine right back to this particular moment and place and population.' But Tabery and Allen also found that the Black prisoners were not treated the same as the white prisoners who participated in research at Stateville. For one, they weren't paid as much as the white prisoners, the rationale being that the white prisoners were infected with malaria, whereas the Black prisoners were given the drug but not infected with the disease — though some of the Black prisoners got very ill after taking the medication, according to the paper. Also, researchers didn't protect the Black participants' privacy as well as they did for other participants. They published certain identifying information about the Black participants, such as initials, ages, heights and weights, whereas participants in the previous research were represented with case numbers, according to the paper. Researchers also recruited the Black prisoners' family members for the study, which they didn't do with earlier participants, according to the paper. 'You see them just doing things with the Black prisoners that they're not doing with the white prisoners,' Tabery said. Also, though scientists made an important discovery through the research on Black prisoners, the episode also highlights the difficulty that can occur in translating discoveries into real life help for patients. Though the World Health Organization now recommends genetic testing to protect people who are sensitive to antimalarials, many of the people who would benefit most from such testing still don't receive it because of financial barriers, supply chain issues and a lack of training, according to the paper. 'What we found is when you sort of shift to what was happening to the Black prisoners, these other lessons you hadn't thought of as being derivable from Stateville suddenly do become apparent,' Tabery said.
