Social-media influencer Gena Tew has shared details of a major boost in the CD4 count, a type of immune cell attacked by HIV, in her blood. This comes more than one year after she went public with her AIDS diagnosis.
Tennessee-based Tew, 28, has been documenting her health journey in a series of social-media posts since publicly revealing her AIDS diagnosis in March 2022. In one TikTok clip, shared in June 2022 and viewed over 14 million times, the model showed herself struggling to get up from her bed. Her weight had plummeted to 65 pounds, she said, and muscle atrophy had weakened her legs. Among the issues the model has dealt with since her diagnosis are an inability to walk unaided and blindness in one of her eyes.
Tew's health has bounced back in recent months, she said, with her weight increasing to more than 100 pounds. Additionally, the CD4 cell count in her blood has been boosted through treatment.
In a TikTok video shared over the weekend, Tew shared an update on her CD4 count that showed she had crossed a vital threshold.
"Those of you who have been following my journey, today is the fricking day, y'all," she said in the video. "I have been waiting for my CD4 to get over 200 for the longest. Y'all, not only is it over 200, it is 308."
Explaining the meaning of the CD4 count, she added: "That means that I am no longer being seen as [having] AIDS. I am being seen as [having] HIV. HIV! Yeah! Does that mean I reversed it? Yeah, a little bit, it does. And you know how? I take my medicine every day.
"I got to the point to where I'm undetectable, untransmittable, and I can live my life just like everybody else. I mean, of course, I'm in a chair and I'm half-blind. But still, we're working on that... Y'all, I'm so happy."
In a TikTok video shared last November, Tew said that her CD4 count had increased from 112 to 159 and that she was projecting it would be over 200 in the proceeding months. "As my doctor sees it, they say on paper they will see it as HIV instead of AIDS," she said at the time. HIV typically develops into AIDS in approximately eight to 10 years if left untreated, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Tew said last October that her undetectable status for HIV meant her potential partner could take precautions, such as going on the medicine called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). This reduces the chances of contracting HIV through sexual intercourse or while injecting drugs.
Noting that there can sometimes be side effects associated with taking PrEP, Tew said her partner could also "just be smart and use a condom."
"I can have a normal life. Let's get rid of that stigma," she said as the video drew to a close. "AIDS isn't a death sentence. I survived—I'm a survivor."
Tew said on social media in May that she had embarked on a romantic relationship with a man who is 31 years her senior. She further told Newsweek that they met via a dating site in the New Year.
"I have grown more into older [men] because they are more mature and understanding," Tew told Newsweek of her partner via email. "He doesn't judge me by what I have but who I am as a person."
Thanks to antiretroviral therapy, HIV/AIDS patients can suppress viral replication in the body and block transmission to others. The patients will then have such a low level of HIV in their blood that it becomes undetectable in conventional analysis.
Dr. Laura Guay is vice president of research at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in Washington, DC. She told Newsweek that there are "currently more than 24 effective anti-HIV drugs that are commonly used in two- to four-drug combinations to reduce the amount of virus in the body—viral load—to extremely low levels that cannot be measured with our VL tests, called 'undetectable VL.'"
Guay added: "Having undetectable VL is critical to preventing the progression of HIV infection to symptomatic infection or AIDS and preventing transmission of the virus to partners. It is important to seek medical care from an experienced HIV provider if you are HIV-positive."
Guay said a health-care provider will determine which combination of drugs will work best to bring virus levels to undetectable. Also, sexual partners should be tested and get on treatment if positive, she added.
If a partner is HIV-negative, there are steps both people can take "to decrease the chance of passing on the virus, especially while you have detectable VL," Guay said.
"The most important thing that you can do is to take your anti-HIV drugs as directed consistently and track your VL results to get to undetectable. Until you have reached undetectable VL, you should use condoms consistently, and your partner can also take anti-HIV drugs to prevent infection," Guay added.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Ryan Smith is a Newsweek Senior Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more
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