Gena Tew Shuts Down Sephora HIV Rumor Amid AIDS Journey

Social media influencer Gena Tew has shut down an erroneous rumor that customers at Sephora are at risk of contracting HIV from using the cosmetics store chain’s samples and tester kits.

Visitors to Sephora are often given the opportunity to sample everything from makeup to fragrances as they examine the items in any one of the multinational retailer’s stores, which provide hundreds of personal care and cosmetics brands across the U.S.

However, in an example of the rampant misinformation that has woven its way into the fabric of social media, a video was circulated of a TikTok user incorrectly warning of the purported dangers of using samplers at Sephora. The unnamed person warned users that they “don’t know how many people are using [a sampler], and what kind of people are using it. And you can get serious infections, even like HPV and HIV from these.”

A screen caption suggested that the clip was shared in response to the recent viral TikTok video about a 10-year-old girl who picked up hundreds of dollars worth of high-end skincare products and fragrances while shopping with her mother.

While Tew, who publicly revealed her AIDS diagnosis in March 2022, chose not to weigh in on the conversation that had gripped social media earlier this month, she did address the false claim that HIV can be contracted through Sephora.

“I am gonna have to declare cap [lie],” Tew said in a video, after playing a snippet of the claims. “No offense to you or whatever, but y’all… You cannot catch HIV—I’m gonna say that right now—from using a tester at Sephora. That’s not how it works.”

It wasn’t specified which of the samples or testers were being discussed at the time. Newsweek has contacted representatives of Sephora via email for comment.

Tennessee-based Tew, 29, has been documenting her health journey in a series of social-media posts since going public with her AIDS diagnosis in 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 over the past year, 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 in June, 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.”

HIV typically develops into AIDS in approximately eight to 10 years if left untreated, according to the Mayo Clinic.

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, vice president of research at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in Washington, D.C., previously 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.”

“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,” Guay added. “Until you have reached undetectable VL, you should use condoms consistently, and your partner can also take anti-HIV drugs to prevent infection.”