Heartbreaking footage shows how a selfless pensioner has been living like a hermit for over a decade - to avoid infecting people with his agonising skin condition.

Charat Rakmuen, 72, developed the painful blisters when he was in his early 60s and began hiding away in the a small wooden hut in Trang, southern Thailand.

The elderly man was afraid of passing the disease to others - and his only regular contact with the outside world has been through his wife, who delivers him food and painkillers every day.

Local government officials heard about the plight of the pensioner last week and visited him in his cabin near the forest on Thursday (29/11) afternoon.

They arrived with medical staff from the hospital to check on the pensioner's illness and diagnosed him as having Pemphigus Foliaceus - which is not contagious.

Hospital director doctor Thiwaporn Srichanthong said that there was no need for Charat to have stayed hidden away in his wooden hut.

Thiwaporn said the only way to mange the autoimmune blistering disease is withconstant topical treatment from medics.

Charat told the doctors his condition started with a few ulcers but it quickly spread. He could not afford to see doctor often, because after the disease worsened he could no longer work.

Charat said: "I only very rarely see the doctor or buy some medicine from the pharmacy because I had to stop working after the ulcers has spread.

''I did not understand what was happening to me but I was worried about passing it to my wife and others in the village, so I stayed in this small house.''

The pensioner's wife Pha Rakmuean, 59, said that she has to work to support the family's expenses - but her meagre income of no more than 200 baht (around 5GBP) was barely enough.

She said that she had to leave her husband alone in the cabin in the woods because he worried that she might be infected.

Pha said: "I am working as a rubber tapper which means I earn only around 100 to 200 baht (2.57 GBP to 5.15 GBP) a day.

"I can barely support the expenses of myself and my husband, because he desperately needs painkillers every day.

"The family wanted to help him but he insisted on staying in the wooded cabin because he thought it was a contagious disease."