Lycanthropy

Unique, it's called hypertrichosis and is commonly called werewolf syndrome. You can google it. I've used the term extensibly in my just finished book to refer to a character who believes she has this disease, but in reality, she has been cloned from ancient dire wolf DNA.

Tri

Ah, see I was thinking of Porphyria. But I guess that's vampires.

Porphyria cutanea tarda presents clinically as a pathological sensitivity of skin exposed to light causing scarring, hair growth and disfiguration

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Unique said:

oh. you made me think. stop it. too early.

>''<

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Whatever you do, don't, I repeat DON'T, google image it.

Bmwhtly said:

Whatever you do, don't, I repeat DON'T, google image it.

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Oh look! It's my Uncle Max.

I wish I'd remembered this when the Kill Haggis competition was still running.

I must add, there is no disease actually called lycanthropy. Some people like to explain myths using various congential conditions but the connection is speculative.

There has been an hour TV program on this on Discovery Health. You may want to look them up online and see if it's available on DVD. There's a family in someplace like Romania where it runs in the family, and nearly everyone has some variation of it. There's also something on it airing in the next few days if you get Discovery Health: http://health.discovery.com/tv-schedules/series.html?paid=62.13956.109281.27558.x

For an old genetic variant Discovery Health might be adequate, but they are far from authoritative. The things that they present as the forefront of medical science are very often things that have already fallen by the wayside and already proven wrong 10 years ago. It's not that they are deliberately sloppy, it's just how the system works. They often are better than the evening news, wich tries to glam everything. Remember about how writing and publishing works. It often takes a few years to write a textbook, then a few more to get it published, then a few more for it to become popular, then a few more for someone in the non-whatever field to decide this might make an interesting documentary, then a few years to make the documentary, then a few more to get someone to air it. By the time it's out there it's already out of date, but then it's better than nothing. Ignore me, I'm just rambling again.

from wikipedia:
Hypertrichosis, congenital generalized Hypertrichosis or werewolf syndrome is a medical term referring to a condition of excessive body hair. Werewolf syndrome comes from the characteristics of a mythological werewolf of which the person is completely covered in hair or fur. It can be generalized, symmetrically affecting most of the torso and limbs, or localized, affecting an area of skin. It may be mild or severe. In most cases, the term is used to refer to an above-average amount of normal body hair that is unwanted and is an aspect of human variability.
In medical practice, once generalized hypertrichosis has been distinguished from hirsutism, it is most often considered a variation of normal, primarily resulting from genetic factors.
Most of the people recently featured in the media with hypertrichosis are from the Aceves clan of Loreto, Zacatecas, Mexico, some of whom have emigrated to the United States. Many of them have worked for circuses. The brothers Victor Ramon "Danny" Ramos and Gabriel "Larry" Ramos have worked as acrobats. Their cousins, Jesus "Chuy" Aceves, and his sister, Lili, have worked in sideshows.
Although the statistic has been cited that this only occurs for 1 out of 10 billion people,19 people alive today have hypertrichosis out of ~6.5 billion people in the world, makes for an average of 1 in 340 million.