China's longest-living AIDS patient died at the age of 44 on October 12. Lian Dong fought the disease for 10 years, China's National Radio Website reported yesterday.
He was from Chongqing Municipality and was diagnosed with AIDS in 1995 - the first case in that city.
He was reportedly doing business in Yunnan Province in 1989, where he was thought to have contracted HIV after sharing heroin needles. Lian was also the first AIDS patient to receive free treatment in Chongqing.
Lian's condition started to deteriorate in January. Doctors said he finally died of "liver failure caused by the HIV virus."
The world's longest-living AIDS patient on record is an African child, who contracted the HIV virus at birth and lived until the age of 12.
It is unclear how long the virus was in Lian's body before he was diagnosed. If the preclinical period was added, Lian's life span could be the longest in the world of an HIV/AIDS victim, experts said.
The experts contributed Lian's long life to several factors. This included incorporating both Western and traditional Chinese medicine and good hospital care.
(Xinhua)