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An Indian teenager has been branded a human snake because she sheds her skin every two months because of an ultra-rare condition. Shalini Yadav, 16, needs to constantly smear her body with moisturiser to stop it from hardening and seizing up.
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But her poor family cannot afford the treatment and spend their money feeding their family of eight. The brave teen was thrown out of school because her extraordinary appearance scared her fellow pupils.
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Doctors have diagnosed Erythroderma, an inflammatory skin disease also known as ‘red man syndrome’, but are unable to treat it. It causes the skin over almost the entire body to become scaly and flake off.
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Shalini has shed her skin every 45 days since she was born. She has to soak her body in water every hour – night and day – and smear herself with lotion every three hours to prevent drying out.
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Shalini said: “I wanted to study but they threw me out of school as the children would get scared by seeing my face. Everybody in the family is suffering because of my medical condition. But what is my fault? What sin did I commit to be cursed with such a disease.”
