World News for Students of English

25-03-2016 07:00

A man in Bangladesh suffers from a rare skin disorder called Epidermodysplasia Verruciformis, also known as tree man illness. The disease makes bark-like growths appear on his body.

Medical staff in Bangladesh have performed the first ever surgery to treat the disease. The 26-year old patient was admitted to hospital in Dhaka and his right hand was operated on for the first time in what doctors say could be up to dozens of surgeries.

“We operated on him once and we plan to operate for more, maybe more than ten to twelve operations. In the meantime, we sent the tissue, culture and blood to America for some sort diagnosis and we’re waiting for this. The final goal is to operate both hands and to stop the recurrence of the disease.”

The illness is extremely rare with only three other people in the world suffering from it. Experts say more research needs to be done to determine why the tree-like phenomenon occurs.

Difficult words: bark (the “skin” of a tree), dozens (a lot of), tissue (the material which living things are made up of), culture (the bacteria), recurrence (the return), determine (to find out), phenomenon (something which happens).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com