A young Indian named Pratviray Patil has become a hero in his homeland, but the 11-year-old himself, more than anything else, yearns to become like everyone else.
The child suffers from a rare congenital disease, because of which he was nicknamed the werewolf boy.
Hypertrichosis, or Werewolf's syndrome, as this ailment is called, affects one in a billion babies. Patil was not lucky: his illness manifests itself in an extreme form. The entire body of the young man is covered with dark hair more than 7 cm long, and not a single method of treatment helps him.
Over the past year, he has tried all possible methods - homeopathy, allopathy (this is the principle of treatment with drugs that cause effects opposite to the symptoms of the disease), traditional ancient Indian medicine and laser therapy. The effect was zero, and the boy continues to suffer from the ridicule of others. Although, in his opinion, laughter and bullying is not the worst reaction; many people are afraid to look at it.
“I can't leave the city where everyone knows me,” complains Pratviray. "It is not known how strangers will behave when they see me." It is not easy to understand what this teenager is experiencing: there are about fifty people in the world who suffer from the same syndrome as a young Indian. And none of them has yet been cured, because hypertrichosis is a genetic abnormality that manifests itself in a child even in the womb. For some, hair grows on certain parts of the body, for some, like Patil, it covers the entire surface of the skin.
But the boy believes that modern medicine, which is developing by leaps and bounds, will someday be able to save him from ugliness. “For now, I can only be glad that I have no problems with my hair - no itching, no rash,” the teen says stoically. "I would really like to remove the hair, but it grows back, even after laser treatment."
When Pratviray was born, the neighbors convinced his mother that she had given birth to a deity. In India, congenital anomalies and severe malformations are often attributed to the action of supernatural causes, honoring sick children as incarnate gods. For example, a girl with two faces, who was recently born in the Indian province, is recognized as the reincarnation of the goddess of wealth Lakshmi, they bring her gifts and pray. It was approximately the same with the werewolf boy, but many considered his birth a sign of the end of the world. “People often came to look at my child,” recalls the boy's mother. "Some called him a god, and some called him a demon, a messenger of death."
Studying at school is easy for a teenager. “He has a sharp mind and a tenacious memory,” boasts Pratviraya's dad. Other children have long been accustomed to the appearance of their classmate, especially since he deftly plays cricket, in which extra hair is not a hindrance.
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There are many ailments that disfigure patients, depriving them of their human appearance, and most of them are most often found in residents of Asian countries. Not so long ago, the medical history of the Indonesian fisherman Dede, who became famous as the Tree Man, became world famous. A genetic abnormality that struck the unfortunate immune system led to the fact that the trivial human papillomavirus took on a terrible form in him. The limbs of the man were covered with branch-like processes, multiple neoplasms appeared on the body. True, one American doctor volunteered to help Dede - remove the growths and undergo a course of treatment with vitamin A, which has a positive effect on immunity.