If it is not the well respected and trusted Discovery channel, it would be hard to believe there is a man who has some kind of tree root-like warts on his arms, feet, and all over his body.   
 
Who is that Tree Man?
He is a 37 years old Indonesian fisherman, and his name is Dede Koswara. He had a cut on his knee when he was a teenager. From that cut, “tree bark-like warts” began growing out of his arms, feet and his body over the years; local doctors did not have cure for it. He was divorced by his wife, and he has had 2 children to raise alone, now in their late teens. He joined the local freak shows to earn his living and rasie his 2 children.

Luckily the Discovery channel team found him, and Dr Anthony Gaspari, an American doctor, diagnosed him to have HPV-2 infection and immune deficiency. At the mean time the Indonesian government involved, and several operations had been done to remove 12 pounds of “tree bark-like warts”.  Dr Anthony Gaspari knew that the removal was just a temporary cure, and the warts would not go away. His suggestion was to get rid of the virus by chemotherapy and taking a daily synthetic form of vitamin A. That is what the Indonesian doctors had done to Dede before he was discharged from hospital in August 2008. Hope he will have somewhat his normal life back.

The question is why HPV-2 infection and immune deficiency can cause these ugly bark-like warts.
 
What is HPV-2 infection?
HPV-2 (Human Papilloma Virus type2) is a virus infection that makes common skin warts especially on hands, and it usually comes through the cut. This HPV-2 infection (skin wart) is commonly seen in teenagers at ages 12-16, and it is transmitted with direct or indirect contact. Usually it is contained by the normal immunity system; sometimes we just remove warts by certain liquids sold in pharmacy such as salicylic acid, or by freezing with nitrogen liquid. According to CDC (Control Disease Center), there are about 20 millions people who have these common warts in USA. Unfortunately for Dede, he also has faulty genes that make his immunity system unable to contain these viruses. So when viruses got through the cut of his knee, his immunity system could not kill them. The viruses then hijacked the skin cells and ordered the cells to produce a massive amount of proteins called “Karatin”, which make warts. Since he was not treated for years, his warts grew and eventually became like tree bark-like warts.

What is immunity deficiency?
It is the state in which the immunity system ability to fight infections are compromised or completely absent. According to Dr Anthony Gaspari, Dede has weak, abnormal immunity system; that is why he can not fight the HPV viruses. Some people got the immunity deficiency due to other illness such HIV/AID, but Dede does not have HIV/AID. He was born with that immunity deficiency (low white blood cells count), and there is not much he can do about it. He just needs to live with it and avoids any infection.
      
It is too bad for Dede who lives in a small village that does not have good health care system. If he lives in USA, the bizarre Tree man story will not be on the news around the world; our health care system would catch this problem sooner, not 20 years later. Chinese government has said they did have 2 cases of this disease, but they caught it earlier.

What do we learn from this bizare story?
Nature is amazing, and the evolution is at work. Nothing is perfect, and so does the DNA reproduction, causing Dede to have abnormal and less white blood cells. 

Latest news about Tree man - December 2009:

Recently,  Tree Man was in the world news again. His warts did not go away; instead they are fighting back and growing, meaning that the chemotherapy and taking daily vitamin A did not work.  

Hope he can be brought to USA for further treatment.