Erik Ortiz is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital focusing on racial injustice and social inequality.
The announcement that former talk show host Wendy Williams has been diagnosed with aphasia has put the neurological condition — the same one actor Bruce Willis was diagnosed with in 2022 — back in the spotlight. Aphasia affects a person's ability to speak, read, write and understand others. The condition usually comes on suddenly from a brain injury or stroke, but in some cases it can develop over time as a result of a neurodegenerative disease.
Other types leave patients able to understand speech well and read adequately, but cause them to have difficulty finding words, according to the association. In people with primary progressive aphasia, Williams' diagnosis, language skills become increasingly impaired over time. Some of the first symptoms are issues with speech and language; memory loss generally develops later. Eventually, almost all people with PPA stop speaking and lose the ability to understand written or spoken language.
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