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Mozart may have died of strep infection: study
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 | 12:12 PM ET
Mozart died on Dec. 5, 1791 after a sudden illness. He was 35.
More than two centuries after the fact, a team of University of Amsterdam researchers have put forth a new theory on what may have killed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart so suddenly in the late 18th century.
According to the group's study, reported in the U.S. medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine on Tuesday, a common streptococcal infection could have led to the 35-year-old composer's death on Dec. 5, 1791.
The Dutch researchers dug into historical accounts of Mozart's sudden illness in November 1791 ? symptoms of which included a fever, rash, pain in his limbs and dramatic swelling. They then compared this with more than 5,000 other medical reports from the period.
In their research, the team discovered that Vienna had suffered a strep epidemic around the time of the Maestro's death.
Given the reports of the composer suffering severe swelling during his final days, the researchers postulated that he had contracted a strep infection which affected his kidneys and resulted in edema, or swelling caused by excess fluid in the body.
"Deaths from edema were markedly increased among younger men in the weeks surrounding Mozart's death compared with the previous and following years," the report said.
The team also noted, however, that scarlet fever was also a possibility.
Researchers and historians have long hypothesized about what killed the prodigious virtuoso, with common theories ranging from poisoning to an unknown chronic condition to his having contracted a parasite from eating bad pork.
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/08/18/mozart-death-strep-infection.html?ref=rss
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 | 12:12 PM ET
Mozart died on Dec. 5, 1791 after a sudden illness. He was 35.
More than two centuries after the fact, a team of University of Amsterdam researchers have put forth a new theory on what may have killed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart so suddenly in the late 18th century.
According to the group's study, reported in the U.S. medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine on Tuesday, a common streptococcal infection could have led to the 35-year-old composer's death on Dec. 5, 1791.
The Dutch researchers dug into historical accounts of Mozart's sudden illness in November 1791 ? symptoms of which included a fever, rash, pain in his limbs and dramatic swelling. They then compared this with more than 5,000 other medical reports from the period.
In their research, the team discovered that Vienna had suffered a strep epidemic around the time of the Maestro's death.
Given the reports of the composer suffering severe swelling during his final days, the researchers postulated that he had contracted a strep infection which affected his kidneys and resulted in edema, or swelling caused by excess fluid in the body.
"Deaths from edema were markedly increased among younger men in the weeks surrounding Mozart's death compared with the previous and following years," the report said.
The team also noted, however, that scarlet fever was also a possibility.
Researchers and historians have long hypothesized about what killed the prodigious virtuoso, with common theories ranging from poisoning to an unknown chronic condition to his having contracted a parasite from eating bad pork.
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/08/18/mozart-death-strep-infection.html?ref=rss