A 2-year-old girl in Britain who is suffering from a rare skin disease that causes blistering all over her body is fighting it by spending time in a tanning bed, the Daily Mail reported.
Stephanie Brown was born with diffuse cutaneous mastocytosis, which affects one in every 500,000 people. She is the youngest person to ever be treated for the skin condition.
In order to heal the painful blisters, comparable to cigarette burns, doctors prescribed 30 sessions of UVA tanning treatment for a period of four months.
The UV rays in the tanning bed stabilize the cells in her body that release the histamine, which causes the blisters. Diffuse cutaneous mastocytosis affects children more than adults, and in most cases the symptoms decrease with age. Most patients see the condition disappearing totally by puberty, but if it progresses past adulthood, there is no cure.
After four months of tanning bed treatment, Stephanie’s mother, Maria Brown, said she saw a dramatic improvement in the girl’s blisters.
“We're absolutely thrilled the treatment has been so successful,” Brown said. “Although using something like a sunbed to treat a baby might seem strange, it's perfectly safe and has really helped Stephanie.”
More treatments will be needed in Stephanie’s teen years, but her physician, Dr. Bridia Allagoa, said Stephanie’s skin condition will continue to improve over time.“‘I would hope that Stephanie's will be completely normal by her teens,” Allagoa said.
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