Meet Dede Koswara. They call him Tree Man. He's an Indonesian man who suffers from a very rare condition (no, the picture is NOT fake or computer generated). Dede's ordeal began when he was 15 and cut his knee in an accident. A small wart developed on his lower leg and spread uncontrollably.
..Dr Gaspari, of the University of Maryland, concluded Dede's affliction was caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), a fairly common infection usually causing only small warts.
Dede's problem was that he has an extremely rare immune system deficiency, leaving his body 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 causing tree-like growths known as "cutaneous horns".
He recently had surgery to remove about 4 lbs of these warts and is being treated with vitamin A to boost his immune system and hopefully prevent the warts from growing back.
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