The tree man's disease is epidermodysplasia verruciformis, a disease caused by a type of HPV virus that causes the person to have numerous warts scattered throughout the body, which are so large and misshapen that they make their hands and feet look like logs of trees.
Verrucciform epidermodysplasia is rare but it severely affects the skin. This disease is caused by the presence of HPV virus and also changes in the immune system that allows these viruses to circulate freely throughout the body, leading to the formation of a large amount of warts throughout the body.
The regions affected by these warts are very sensitive to sunlight and some can turn cancer. Thus, the same person may have warts on various regions of the body, but not all of them will be related to cancer.
Symptoms and Diagnosis
Symptoms of verrucciform epidermodysplasia may begin soon after birth, but usually appear between 5 and 12 years of age. Are they:
- Dark warts, which are initially flat but begin to grow and multiply rapidly;
- With sun exposure there can be itching and burning sensation in the warts.
These warts especially affect the face, hands and feet, not being present in the scalp, nor in the mucous like mouth and genital regions.
Although not a disease that passes from father to son, there may be brothers with the same disease and there is a greater possibility of the couple having a child with this disease when there is a consanguineous marriage, that is, when there is a marriage between brothers, between parents and children or between first cousins.
Treatments and Healing
Treatment of verrucciform epidermodysplasia should be indicated by the dermatologist and may vary from one person to another. Medications can be prescribed to strengthen the immune system and surgeries can be performed to remove the warts.
However, no treatment is definitive and the warts can continue to appear and increase in size, being necessary to perform surgeries for their removal at least 2 times a year. If the patient does not perform any treatment, the warts may develop so much that they can prevent the person from eating and doing their own hygiene.
Some remedies that may be indicated are Salicylic Acid, Retinoic Acid, Levamisole, Thuya CH30, Acitretin and Interferon. When the person has cancer, the oncologist can indicate the chemotherapy to control the disease, prevent it from getting worse and that the cancer does not spread to other areas of the body.
