Mozart may have Died from Strep
The music that Mozart made has endured for over 200 years, but speculation as to how he died so suddenly on December 5, 1971 at the age of 35 has endured for just as long. However, now a report from Annals of Internal Medicine on Tuesday suggests that the composer may have been subject to something more common than getting an intestinal parasite or being poisoned from syphilis treatments - strep throat.
The report says that it’s possible Mozart had kidney failure as a result of strep throat, a theory that came after looking at the death records in Vienna around the time he died. Dr. Richard Zegers at the University of Amsterdam, says that they saw that there was a minor epidemic of edema (swelling) during the time Mozart died.
There are more deaths related to swelling among younger men in the city when Mozart died in comparison to previous and later years. This suggests that there was a minor epidemic of streptococcal disease, according to Zegers. During Mozart’s time, a fever and rash, which was in Vienna’s official death register, wasn’t recognized to be an actual disease.
Furthermore, the creative output and letters that survived him suggest that he wasn’t feeling or suffering from a chronic illness in the months before his death, and many sources note that he became ill not long before his passing. According to a recollection 30 years later from his sister-in-law, he suffered from severe swelling that kept him to even turn in bed.
Dr. William Schaffner, an expert in infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says that it isn’t definitive, but not unreasonable to think that strep complications caused Mozart’s death. However, he also pointed out that authors have little data to prove the theory.