cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14363079

A young boy looks like a real-life werewolf, with hair enveloping his face and body, all due to a one-in-a-billion medical anomaly.

Dubbed potentially as the world’s hairiest baby, his mother’s peculiar theory blames her “cursed” pregnancy craving for her son’s condition, The Sun reports.

Jaren Gamongan from Apayao, the Philippines, was born with a full head of hair, black sideburns, and patches that filled his face, neck, back, and arms.

His superstitious mum, Alma, believed the boy’s appearance was due to a curse wrought upon her when she ate a wild cat while pregnant with the child.

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Her neighbours kept feeding her ideas about a curse, but when she finally took Jaren to qualified doctors this month, they found out he had a medical condition called hypertrichosis.

The incredibly rare syndrome only affects an estimated “one in every billion people”, as only 50 to 100 cases were reported worldwide since the Middle Ages.