there was a program before christmas on the discovery channel called "my shocking story: the tree man" or something similar. the guy had uncontrolled wart growth over most of his body which had turned his hands and feet into tree like things. he couldn't use his hands - although he could still smoke a fag??
there were a few of them featured in the program, a few had bubbles all over their bodies, some were hideously deformed and they were toured all over the country as a freak show (it was in indonesia somewhere i think). the really sad thing is that the program got some US doctor to find a cure for him which he did, but when they went back to find him they couldn't. the implication from his family was that he was earning too much money in the freak show.