Advertisement
Ten-year-old Shahana has lived with this incredibly rare skin disease for almost her entire life. When she was barely six months old, her parents noticed that there were strange growths appearing on her body here and there.
It was impossible to tell, at first, what the growths were. But over time, each patch soon started to resemble tree roots. As Shahana grew older, the patches grew even worse.
Soon enough, the growths were beginning to crop up on her nose, cheeks, chin, and earlobes.
Shahana’s skin disorder causes wart-like lesions to form all over her body. They have a high risk of becoming cancerous in the future if they’re not properly treated in time. Until then, the warts exist as terrible cosmetic disfigurement.
“I get itching in face and knees in the morning and night,” Shahana said.
The girl’s father said that ever since his daughter was six months old, he’d watched her rashes appear. Slowly but surely, the rashes grew into warts that have since taken over much of his daughter’s appearance. Now, they very much resemble horns – or tree roots.
This rough, bark-like appearance is what this disorder is named for – “tree man illness.” More formally, doctors call the disorder epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV), but because this condition is so rare, doctors have yet to develop a treatment or a cure for it.
EV appears in patients who are born from two parents who both have one abnormal EV gene, and it is also caused by infection with the HPV virus.
Recently, however, doctors were able to restore a man’s life by removing 11 pounds of EV growth from his hands. The man is now recovering and is eager to have the ability to play with his child once more.
For Shahana, however, she’s still waiting to be seen by doctors because her parents haven’t been able to afford proper medical treatment for a very long time.
Shahana’s family lives in a remote region in the northern part of Bangladesh. It is incredibly difficult for them to seek professional medical help, outside the doctors who reside in their remote village. The girl’s parents wanted to bring their daughter for proper medical help, but weren’t able to afford doing so or physically travel there.
Thankfully, the family was blessed with a bout of good fortune.
When Professor, Dr. Abul Kalam, M.D., a correspondent for Shahana’s village came for a visit, he noticed that her wart growths were worse than when he last remembered seeing them, just six months prior.
"Her warts are grown from face, nose and ears will cause cosmetic disfigurement of the face," Dr. Kalam observed.
Without further ado, he admitted her at the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery for tests.
There, doctors confirmed – Shahana does have EV. Dr. Kalam is hoping that the girl will be able to receive treatment there, or at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
At present, there is no further news on Shahana’s development. We are, however, grateful to know that despite her young age and abnormal appearance, her peers at school aren’t taking advantage of this fact to mock her mercilessly for her condition.
We hope that doctors will be able to treat Shahana and give her a chance to have a normal life soon.
