Bangladesh’s tree man’ is back to the hospital

A Bangladeshi man who suffers from an extremely rare genetic disease known as “tree man” syndrome is back in the hospital and faces more surgery after the condition returned after multiple operations in 2016. Tree man syndrome is also known as Epidermodysplasia verruciformis and dede koswara.

Dede Koswara was an Indonesian tree man who received lots of criticism for having the rarest diseases known as tree man diseases.

About Dede Koswara

Dede koswara was healthy from birth up to his early childhood. His symptoms started to develop since’s when he was in the 10th year of his life. His first symptom was warts around his injured knee, which later on started to develop on his limbs and face.

Due to his poor financial condition, he couldn’t afford the treatment. Initially he removed the wart by himself but later it regrew. He tries to live a normal life after his marriage at the age of 18. He had 2 children. His wart keeps continously growing in unctrollable manner. later he faced difficulty in limb movement and got fired from his job. He also got divorced and separated from his family member.

In August 2008, Dede Koswara had 9 surgeries, and 95% of warts were removed. He was healthy till the warts started regrowing. The team of doctors suggested 2 more surgeries.
He died at the age of 44 on January 30, 2016 at Hasan Sadikin Hospital, Bandung, Indonesia.

What is Tree man syndrome?

Tree man syndrome is an intensely rare autosomal recessive hereditary Skin disorder. It is deeply susceptible to Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections

Epidermodysplasia verruciformis causes skin growth Resulting in macule and papules resembling as tree bark. The skin changes in dede koswara mainly occur in the hands and feet.

Dede koswara usually onset as the age of the 20 years. But it can also occasionally present as middle age too.

More about Abul Bajandar

Abul Bajandar, a 28-year-old father from a small town in southern Bangladesh made headlines three years ago when he underwent a series of complex operations to remove lesions that resemble tree branches from his hands and feet.

Bajandar has been living with the disease, epidemodysplasia verruciformis, for more than two decades. Resulting in extreme wart-like growths across the body.

The condition is caused by a defect in the immune system which increases one’s susceptibility to HPV or human papillomavirus, often leading to chronic HPV infections, skin lesions an increased risk of developing melanoma skin cancer.

It is so rare there have only been a handful of reported cases around the world.

Doctors told CNN that Bajandar had more than 25 surgeries since 2016 but skipped out of further treatment in May.

“It is a complicated case and we were making progress, but he left to go home. I requested him many times to come back to the hospital, but he didn’t,” said Dr. Saamanta Lal Sen, coordinator at the burn and plastic surgery unit of Dhaka medical college and hospital.

“He came back to the hospital on 20, Jan 2019 with his mother. He should have come here six months back but he came too late.”

Bajandar’s condition has now worsened with lesions on his hands with increases around one-inch long. The warts, which was worsened have also spread to his feet  and other parts of his body. Doctor said.

Sen told CNN in 2016 that Bajandar first noticed that lesion when he was 10. Over time, the growths completely encompassed his hands. The growth, stealing his livelihood as a rickshaw driver and making him the subject of international news.

Before the surgeries, Bajandra could not eat, drink, brush his teeth or take a shower or do his daily activities by himself.

“I want to live like a normal person. I just want to be able to hold my daughter properly and hug her which I have been missing since long,” he told CNN at the time. In 2017, the surgeries had left him in “very good shape,” enabling him to eat, bath and write using his own hands, Sen told CNN in a previous report, but now more treatment is needed.

The government settles up with the cost of his treatment in 2016 and Sen said this will extend to any new surgeries Bajandra now needs.