An Iranian man has passed away ages 94, just months after taking his first wash in over 50 years.

Amou Haji, a hermit nicknamed the “world’s dirtiest man” died on Sunday in the village of Dezhgah in the southern province of Fars, state news agency IRNA reported.

Haji had avoided showering over fears of “getting sick,” and subsisted on a diet of rotten meat – porcupine being his favourite – and unsanitary water drunk from an old oil can.

He would cut his hair by burning it over a fire, and smoked countless cigarettes gifted to him by villagers – as well as a pipe filled with dried animal feces as tobacco.

Haji lived in isolation in an open brick hut and had faced some “emotional setbacks in his youth.” 

According to Iranian news agency IRNA, years of not bathing left him with skin covered in “soot and pus”.

After years of attempts to bathe him or provide him with clean water villagers did persuade Haji to take a bath a few months ago.

Haji became ill shortly afterwards and died.