Wasting Disease

There has been a lot of drama surrounding an Instagram model named Gena Tew who recently went live and shared her truth about having AIDS. That was a very brave move for the young lady and it is devastating to hear that she is going through this. The thing that bothers me about the situation is how the YouTubers have started calling out men that she has been seen with and claiming that they might be sick. I will not call any names but to accuse someone of faking Lupus (a disease my mom had) is just going to far below the belt. So Mr. “Hair flip” I’m putting you in time out! Instead of focusing on the important aspects of what Ms. Tew said in her confession like she did not get STD checks as often as should have or the fact that she may have allowed someone to tattoo her with a dirty needle they want to focus on who she slept with! I feel like this young lady needs mental support from her fans right now instead of judgement. She has been dealing with this for two years and finally came out publicly. The scariest part is that HIV may have been in her system for 10 years. This means that she was somewhere between 15-17 years old when she contracted the disease which is also sad because she did mention that she had been raped before as well. This is just a sad, sad story.

Even after all that I have mentioned previously Gena also stated that she may have wasting disease. I had to look that up because I thought I knew what it was but it didn’t make sense for her to say she has it. I was right, it is a disease that is found in animals… specifically elk and deer. According to the CDC website, in an article from 2021 about wasting disease, they basically stated that no human cases had been found to date. I guess they will have to update their records. They also mentioned that they believed it could be spread to primates like monkeys. So how did this young lady get wasting disease? Pray tell? Y’all, they say it is contagious too! So not only do we have COVID running rampage, monkey pox sneaking up on the sideline, but now we may also have to worry about wasting disease. I need to know if her case is confirmed and from where she got that! I don’t care about where she got HIV nor whom she may have passed it on too because I will never be in their circles and I for one don’t have unprotected sex but I do need to know more about this wasting disease. The CDC website stated that it takes over a year for the animal to show symptoms. This disease affects the brain and eventually kills you. I understand that it is super sad to see such a beautiful girl go through this horrible situation. I tell my daughter all the time to make wise decision because everything you do comes back three fold, so if you are out here taking unnecessary risks with your life then don’t be shocked with the outcome. Please go show love on her page, positive thoughts only y’all … what if it were your sister!

Since writing this article a lady on Twitter helped me to find the information I needed to understand this. First off people need to understand the dictionary and words… Disease and syndrome are different. Ms. Tew has wasting syndrome which is related to HIV so apologies for freaking folks out! (7/30/22)