Half Man; Half Tree

[CrONoS]

....

...

...
... Unbelievable

[CrONoS]

http://www.discoverychannel.co.uk/myshockingstory/halfman/index.shtml

32 year old Dede lives in a remote village in Indonesia with his two children, trying to care for them. Dede, a former fisherman, has an extraordinary skin condition: he has root like structures growing out of his body - branches that can grow up to 5cm a year and which protrude from his hands and feet, and welts covering his whole body.

He is known locally as ‘Tree Man’ and his condition has baffled local doctors for 20 years. In an attempt to earn a living to support his family, he is part of a circus troupe, displaying his Tree Man limbs along with others afflicted with skin deformities in ‘freak’ shows.

Dr Anthony Gaspari, a world expert in skin conditions from the University of Maryland travels to Indonesia to attempt to diagnosis Dede’s mysterious condition. He takes skin samples for biopsies back in the USA. What will he discover?

We go on an intimate journey with the extraordinary Dede, as he tries to eek out a living in a circus troupe to support his family, and as he is given medical help by Dr Gaspari. The identification and possible cure of his condition, could change his whole life.

Half way across the world, in Romania, farmer Ion Toader is discovered to have a similar extraordinary ‘Tree Man’ condition, with growths all over his hands. He has not been able to drive a tractor for five years. A Romanian surgeon offers to give him an operation to remove his growths.

Will it be successful, and how will it change Ion’s life?

[CrONoS]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/12/wtree112.xml

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml;jsessionid=QE12FBA2UF3TDQFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/health/2007/12/03/hmax103.xml

[CrONoS]

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.

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.
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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.

[Cort Haus]

Haven't we had this already?

[CrONoS]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Haven't we had this already?

Maybe hidden in a birthday thread.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Haven't we had this already?

You and Cronos had HPV already?

At teh same time?

[CrONoS]

Now the story is about how politics impacts people’s lives; how bureaucratic concern obliterates the individual. A row has erupted because Dr Gaspari has taken Dede’s blood samples back to his laboratory in the United States in an attempt to research a cure.

But Indonesia’s health minister, Siti Fadilah Supari, argues that developing nations risk exploitation unless they maintain control over their virus strains. Indeed, previously she has refused to share bird flu samples with other countries in case they use them to produce expensive vaccines.

Dr Gaspari, desperate to help Dede, has offered to put it in writing that the samples were not for commercial use, explaining: “We did it for humanitarian reasons, to help the patient.”

With the project in jeopardy, Dede may never be cured, the mysteries of his illness remaining unsolved. It’s hard to know who to blame; a paranoid, defensive and self-interested Indonesian government, or the US, whose aggressive pursuit of wealth and power generates such fear in other nations?

The virus does not belong to the Indonesian government, and it is not Mrs Supari who has to endure the lesions that it has caused. But perhaps the pharmaceutical industry in the US is mercenary and countries like Indonesia have a valid reason to be wary.

[CrONoS]

Originally posted by LordShiva


You and Cronos had HPV already?

At teh same time?

..

[CrONoS]

Do I understand correctly; Indonesian Health minister asked Dr Gaspari to stop curing the young guy? Because she is afraid that evil corporation would exploit poor country???

[SlowwHand]

Treebeard!

[Alinestra Covelia]

This is really interesting!

[Guynemer]

Not that interesting; he's only half man, half tree. ManBearPig is half man, half bear, AND half pig.

[LordShiva]

He's half man, half bear-pig.

[-Jrabbit]

That's 1.5 beings...