Tree man 'who grew roots' may be cured
By Matthew Moore
Last Updated: 3:01am GMT 06/12/2007
An Indonesian fisherman who feared that he would be killed by
tree-like growths covering his body has been given hope of recovery by an
American doctor - and Vitamin A.
Update: Tree root man is innocent victim
Fighting the curse of the face-eating tumour
Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything Dede, now 35, baffled
medical experts when warty "roots" began growing out of his arms and feet after
he cut his knee in a teenage accident.
Watch: Dr Anthony Gaspari believes that he has diagnosed Dede's
rare condition The welts spread across his body unchecked and soon he was left
unable to carry out everyday household tasks.
Sacked from his job and deserted by his wife, Dede has been raising his two
children - now in their late teens - in poverty, resigned to the fact that
local doctors had no cure for his condition.
To make ends meet he even joined a local "freak show", parading in front of a
paying audience alongside victims of other peculiar diseases.
Telegraph TV: Dr Anthony Gaspari examines Dede's lesions
Update: Tree man says he wants to live to see grandchildren
Weird Wired Web: Why can't gays climb Everest? Although supported by his
extended family, he was often a target of abuse and ridicule in his rural
fishing village.
But now an American dermatology expert who flew out to Dede's home village
south of the capital Jakarta claims to have identified his condition, and
proposed a treatment that could transform his life.
After testing samples of the lesions and Dede's blood, Dr Anthony Gaspari of
the University of Maryland concluded that his affliction is caused by the Human
Papilloma Virus (HPV), a fairly common infection that usually causes small
warts to develop on sufferers.
Watch: The growths on Dede's arms and feet are known as
'cutaneous horns' Dede's problem is that he has a rare genetic fault that
impedes his immune system, meaning his body is unable to contain the warts.
The virus was therefore able to "hijack the cellular machinery of his skin
cells", ordering them to produce massive amounts of the substance that caused
the tree-like growths known as "cutaneous horns" on his hands and feet.
Dede's counts of a key type of white blood cell are so low that Dr Gaspari
initially suspected he may have the Aids virus.
Chinese pan for gold in the sewage
Indian man marries dog
How About That: More bizarre news stories from around the world But tests
showed he did not, and it became clear that Dede's immune condition was
something far rarer and more mysterious.
Warts aside, he had enjoyed remarkable good health throughout his life -
which would not be expected of someone with a suppressed immune system - and
neither his parents nor his siblings have shown signs of developing lesions.
"The likelihood of having his deficiency is less than one in a million," Dr
Gaspari told the Telegraph.
Dr Gaspari, who became involved in the case through a Discovery Channel
documentary, believes that Dede's condition can be largely cleared up by a
daily doses of a synthetic form of Vitamin A, which has been shown to arrest
the growth of warts in severe cases of HPV.
Watch: Dede with his teenage daughter. He fears that his
children may also become infected "He won't have a perfectly normal body but
the warts should reduce in size to the point where he could use his hands," Dr
Gaspari said.
"Over the course of three to six months the warts should be come smaller and
fewer in number. He will be living a more normal life."
The most resilient warts could then be frozen off and the growths on his
hands and feet surgically removed.
Dr Gaspari hopes to get the necessary drugs free of charge from
pharmaceutical firms. They would then be administered by Indonesian doctors
under his supervision.
Still intrigued by the origins of Dede's peculiar immune condition, the
doctor would like to fly him to the United States for further examination, but
fears the financial and bureaucratic barriers would prove too difficult to
overcome.
"I would like to bring him to the US to run tests on where his immune
condition has come from, but I would need funding and to get him a visa as well
as someone to cover the costs of the tests," he said.
"I've never seen anything like this in my entire career."
"Half Man Half Tree", part of the "My Shocking Story" series, will be shown on
the Discovery Channel at 9pm on Nov 15. For more details visit the programme's
website.
---------------------------------
Looking for the perfect gift? Give the gift of Flickr!_______________________________________________
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including
attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way.
---------------------------------------
