A transvestite at the centre of a sex scandal last year involving Brazil's football star Ronaldo has died of AIDS.
Andre Albertini, a 22-year-old cross-dressing man known as "Andreia", was buried on Friday after passing away on Thursday in a hospital in the Sao Paulo suburb of Maua, the news website G1 and other Brazilian outlets reported.
The cause of death was given as neurotoxoplasmosis, a brain infection that arises from acquired immune deficiency syndrome, according to the death certificate.
Albertini was one of three transvestite prostitutes invited into a hotel room by Ronaldo - full name Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima - on April 28 last year.
He accused the footballer of refusing to pay the agreed price for sex.
But Ronaldo denied that account, saying he had mistaken the transvestites for women and decided to not pay for their services when he found out they were men. He said they had threatened him with blackmail over the encounter.
Albertini's mother said her son contracted HIV in 2006, in Rio de Janeiro. She said he slipped into a coma on Tuesday and she took him to the hospital.
Ronaldo, who was a star player for AC Milan at the time of the incident, is making a comeback with Brazil's Corinthians team after a year off because of injury.
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