‘Werewolf boy’ taunted by bullies, yet left alone by bigfoot hunters

Okay, that headline is a little mean, and I apologize to young Mr. Patil for it. It was intended as a jab at the bigfoot hunters anyway.

As reported by a fair number of sources including telegraph.co.uk (from whom I borrowed these fine photos), 11-year-old Pruthviraj Patil has a condition known to the medical community as hypertrichosis and known to tabloid reporters as Werewolf Syndrome. Sources all seem to agree that 50 people worldwide have the condition; whether this is an estimate or an actual figure as catalogued by some unnamed census bureau isn’t mentioned.

Owing to the narrative similarity of different periodicals’ coverage of the story, I assume it was pulled off some wire service or another. What’s interesting is that, while they all make mention of the fact that people stare at him wherever he goes and he was bullied as a (younger) child, The Telegraph is the only source I found that includes this little snippet:

But despite his abnormal hair growth Pruthviraj, who is from the district of Sangli, near Bombay, is healthy, sporty and popular at school.

On the one hand, deals with bullies. On the other, sporty and popular. So, basically, a normal kid.