Strep Throat Likely Killed Mozart

'Minor epidemic' hit Vienna
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 18, 2009 7:56 AM CDT
Strep Throat Likely Killed Mozart
Sheet music, recently identified as part of a childhood creation by Mozart, is seen in Salzburg, Austria, Aug. 2, 2009.   (AP Photo/ Kerstin Joensson)

Some have speculated Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died of eating undercooked pork; others have said he was poisoned. Now researchers believe he may have died of strep throat, Reuters reports. There was a “minor epidemic” of strep in Vienna when Mozart died, and findings suggest “Mozart was one of several persons in that epidemic that developed a deadly kidney complication,” researchers say.

Witnesses had said Mozart got sick with “inflammatory fever,” which fits with the strep theory, researchers note.
(More Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart stories.)

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