Oscar Wilde died of ear infection, not syphilis

LONDON, NOV 24: Oscar Wilde, the nineteenth century author famous for his sexual appetites, died from an ear infection and not syphilis as...

LONDON, NOV 24: Oscar Wilde, the nineteenth century author famous for his sexual appetites, died from an ear infection and not syphilis as previously thought, a British newspaper claimed on Friday.

The Independent quoted a study by two doctors that claimed a medical certificate detailing Wilde’s final days showed he had meningoencephalitis, a chronic infection of the middle ear. Wilde contracted the infection while an undergraduate at Oxford University and it got worse after he was imprisoned for being a homosexual, the doctors have claimed.

Shortly before his death in Paris in November 20 1900, Wilde underwent an operation to cut out the affected area, but it made his condition worse. The doctors behind the theory, from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, published their claims in the medical journal The Lancet to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Wilde’s death.

"It is highly opportune on the occasion of this centenary to erase the longstanding myth that Wilde suffered from, and died, of syphilis," they wrote. "The tragedy was that he had chronic and destructive middle ear disease that eventually killed him." Wilde died a pauper’s death in a seedy hotel in Paris and was buried in the city’s Pere Lachaise cemetery.