Tennessee-based Tew, 27, has been documenting her health journey in a series of social media posts since going public with her diagnosis in March. In one TikTok clip, shared on June 11 and viewed over 14 million times, Tew showed herself struggling to get up from her bed. Her weight had plummeted to 65 pounds, and muscle atrophy had weakened her legs.

Her health has bounced back in recent months, with her weight increasing to more than 100 pounds, but Tew continues to deal with other problems, including an inability to walk unaided.

In a video posted on her TikTok account this week, Tew gave an update on her health before addressing a post from a person who said that her continued use of a wheelchair and walking frame was done to sustain an alleged lie.

The model said: “To the person who said I’m not walking yet because I’m lying for clicks and views, if I was walking you would hate me because you would be seeing it obnoxiously across my profile and I would be doing many great things that you could do with your lovely, lovely legs.

“If I could go back to my old life, I would—and I mean that a hundred percent,” she said.

In November, Tew told her more than 840,000 TikTok followers that the CD4 count in her blood had been boosted as her health continues to improve. The count is a measure of the number of CD4 cells, a type of immune cell attacked by HIV.

In a video clip, she said: “I just had my recent bloodwork done, and as you know… my CD4 count was 112. So now it is 159. So I think in the next three-and-a-half to four months, I’ll be over 200. I’m excited.”

She continued: “As my doctor sees it, they say on paper they will see it as HIV instead of AIDS.” Once her CD4 count surpasses 200, she will be classified as living with HIV rather than having AIDS, she explained. HIV typically turns into AIDS in approximately eight to 10 years if left untreated, according to the Mayo Clinic.

While Tew remains unable to walk unaided, she shared an update with her TikTok followers in September, showing herself briefly standing up with the aid of a walker.

As her health improved, Tew said in October that the viral load in her blood means that she cannot transmit HIV to another person.

“I am undetectable, you guys. That means untransmittable,” she said in a TikTok video. “With that being said, people are asking me, ‘Are you going to marry or have a baby with someone with AIDS?’ I don’t need to marry somebody with AIDS. They don’t have to have AIDS. That means I cannot transmit it to the other person.”

Tew went on to say that her potential partner could take precautions, such as going on a medicine called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which 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.”

Thanks to antiretroviral therapy, HIV/AIDS patients can suppress the viral replication within the body and block transmission to others. The patient will subsequently have such a low level of HIV in the blood that it becomes undetectable in conventional analysis.

Dr. Laura Guay, vice president of research at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, told Newsweek: “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…to extremely low levels that cannot be measured with our VL tests—called ‘undetectable VL.’

“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.

She continued: “Your health care provider will determine which combination of drugs will work best for you to bring your virus levels to undetectable. Sexual partners should also be tested and get on treatment if positive.”

Guay said if a partner is HIV-negative, both persons can take steps to decrease the chance of passing on the virus, “especially while you have detectable VL.”

“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,” she said. “Until you have reached undetectable VL, you should use condoms consistently, and your partner can also take anti-HIV drugs to prevent infection,” such as PrEP.

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