"The Tree Man of Indonesia"
Dede Koswara, a 37-year-old man from a small village in Indonesia, is known as "the Tree Man". It all started when Dede was 15, peeling one knee while playing on the street. Tiny warts have grown around his wound, starting to spread to cover his entire body. Dede suffers from a very rare disease called verruciform epidermodysplasia. ⚫️ The man dies on 01/30/2016 from complications related to the pathology. 🔎 What is it about? It is a rare and inherited dermatological disease caused by a chronic human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. This pathology occurs already in childhood and, in most cases, is transmitted in an autosomal recessive manner. 🧬 What is it favored by? From defects in cellular immunity and from gene mutations in the 17q25.3 region, which inactivate the EVER1 and EVER2 genes. These aberrations make affected patients susceptible to certain human papillomavirus serotypes (including HPV-5, 8, 17, 20). There is no sex predilection. 🩺 What does it look like? It is characterized by the progressive appearance of polymorphic and disseminated skin signs, such as: 🔘 Flat, isolated, hyperpigmented or hypopigmented verrucous papules; 🔘 Irregular reddish-brown plaques; 🔘 Scaly or hyperkeratotic lesions, sometimes confluent in psoriasiform patches; 🔘 Erythematous macules, sometimes atrophic, pigmented or achromic. These skin manifestations can be caused by different subtypes of human papillomavirus (in 80% of cases, HPV-5 and HPV-8 were found). ♾ Course It is chronic and predisposes to the development of skin cancers other than melanoma (including Bowen's disease, squamous cell and basal cell carcinomas), during the fourth or fifth decade of life. These lesions occur especially on photo-exposed skin (trunk, neck, face, back of hands and feet). 🩺 Diagnosis Diagnosis is based on the clinical and histological picture of the warty elements or tumor lesions. By: https://www.instagram.com/p/CacZ3t4sLEk/?utm_medium=copy_link
Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CacZ3t4sLEk/?utm_medium=copy_link