Those in close contact with suspected Paterson meningitis victim Jameek Lowery urged to get treated

Paterson and state health officials are trying to alert people who had close contact with Jameek Lowery that they need preventive treatment with antibiotics, after learning that the 27-year-old city resident who died Monday is suspected to have had bacterial meningitis.  

“Laboratory tests are pending at this time,”  the state Health Department said in a statement.

Lowery, who was not identified by name in the statement, may have been infectious to others as early as Dec. 29, health officials said.

Lowery’s death after he videotaped an encounter with the police at the Paterson Police Department early Saturday morning sparked two nights of demonstrations in Paterson.  

The video shows Lowery frantically telling police that people are trying to kill him, asking for water, and sweating profusely. During the video, Lowery asserted the officers thought he was cooperating with the FBI — an apparent reference to the federal probe that has led to the convictions of three Paterson cops and arrests of two others.

Lowery also talked of his own demise. “If I’m dead in an hour or two, they did it,” he said of the officers. Paterson firefighters then arrived on the scene and told Lowery they would take him to the hospital. When he arrived at the hospital he was unresponsive, and died there two days later.

In an earlier 911 call, Lowery told the operator he took “too many E-pills, Ecstasy.”  

“We are still awaiting an official report from the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office and the State of New Jersey Regional Medical Examiner’s Office as to the cause and manner of Jameek Lowery’s death,” Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh said Thursday morning in a statement.  

The mayor, who met Lowery personally at a local restaurant the week before he died, went to St. Joseph’s University Medical Center at 11 p.m. Wednesday, where he was treated with antibiotics “out of an abundance of caution,” the statement said.  

Emergency personnel who came into contact with Lowery on Saturday and Sunday were also urged to go to St. Joseph’s for preventive treatment with antibiotics.

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The bacteria that spread meningitis are shared via saliva and spit and require close contact – such as kissing or coughing on someone – to cause infection. Meningitis is not as infectious as the common cold, the state health department said. “People do not catch them [the bacteria] through casual contact or by breathing air where someone with meningococcal disease has been,” the statement said. 

Those at greatest risk when a person has meningitis are people who share the same residence, or a boyfriend or girlfriend.  

The Paterson health department has set up a hotline for those with concerns about meningitis: 973-321-1277.

When people show symptoms of meningitis, it’s important that they get prompt medical attention. The most common symptoms are a fever, headache and a stiff neck. People may also suffer from nausea and vomiting and confusion, and their eyes may be sensitive to light.  

If Lowery had also used Ecstasy, as he said he did in the 911 call, that may have reduced his immunity to meningitis. A study published in the British Journal of Phamacology in 2010 reported that chronic use of MDMA, the chemical name for Ecstasy, suppresses the immune system and increases susceptibility to infection.  

Officials said their recommendations for treatment may change when the lab results are received.

The push by city and hospital officials to get people in recent contact with Lowery treated with antibiotics may meet resistance from some members of the community.

Jamir King, Lowery’s half-brother, spent half an hour in Lowery’s hospital room on Saturday morning. King said he doesn’t believe Lowery had meningitis. And given the ongoing questions about the circumstances of Lowery’s death, he doesn’t plan to participate in any health screening encouraged by the mayor.  

“The mayor wants everybody that was in the hospital to get checked,” King said. “I don’t trust the mayor. I don’t trust the hospital right now. So if I got ‘meningitis,’ I’d rather die. I’m not going to the hospital.”

Staff Writer Christopher Maag contributed to this article.