Mozart victim of severe strep throat

By Sheilah Downey (sheilahd@foodconsumer.org)


For more than two hundred years the music world has wondered about the death of one of history's most energetic and enigmatic composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Mozart, who left more than 600 works, died in abject poverty in Vienna on Dec. 5, 1791 and was buried in a common grave. He was 35.

Scientists now think the Austrian-born composer, who according to eyewitness accounts had severe edema (swelling), died during a minor epidemic of streptococcus, according to research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Mozart's death has been clouded in mystery since 1791, with theories ranging from rheumatic fever, trichinosis, mercury poisoning and Henoch-Schonlein purpura, an immune system disease.

Eyewitnesses said Mozart's body was so severely swollen he couldn't turn in his bed, but that he remained lucid and was still composing works, including his "Requiem" death mass, until his final day.

Swelling symptoms, said researchers, are consistent with kidney failure which sometimes follows strep infection.

Scientists examined the official daily register of all deaths recorded in Vienna, where he died, from November 1791 to January 1792. They also examined deaths from corresponding periods in 1790 to 1793.

The deaths of 5,011 adults were recorded for this period, said scientists. Of these, 3,442 were men and 1,569 were women. The mean age of death was 45.5 years for men and 54.5 years for women.

Tuberculosis was responsible for the highest number of deaths, malnutrition was second and edema was the third most common form of death, according to the study.

There was a spike in deaths with swelling symptoms in Viennese men under 40 from November 1791 to January 1792, compared to a year before and after that time, the study found.

Strep was considered a dangerous disease at the time and was often fatal before the advent of antibiotics, said researchers.