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Herod 'killed by kidney disease and gangrene' "KING Herod is usually thought of as a paranoid and cruel leader. Now doctors believe he may have become even more ill-tempered towards the end of his life because of kidney disease and rotting genitalia. During his 36-year reign as king of ancient Judea, Herod the Great ordered the executions of one wife and three sons, and the Slaughter of the Innocents in a vain attempt to kill the infant Jesus. Clinicians and scholars met yesterday in Baltimore, Maryland, to unravel the mystery of what killed 69-year-old Herod the Great, or King Herod, as he is called in the New Testament. Medical detectives at the eighth Annual Historical Clinical Pathologic Conference were given details of the new theory by Prof Jan Hirschmann of the University of Washington, Seattle. Based on two accounts by a Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, "Herod the Great expired from chronic kidney disease probably complicated by Fournier's gangrene," he said. Herod's personality problems predated his illness, "but it might have made them worse. Chronic kidney disease can lead to depression (Herod attempted suicide during his illness), paranoia, and irritability," said Prof Hirschmann. "Josephus lists several major features of the disease that caused his death - among them, intense itching, painful intestinal problems, breathlessness, convulsions in every limb, and gangrene of the genitalia," said Prof Hirschmann. "When I first looked at the general diseases that cause itching, it became clear that most of them couldn't explain a majority of the features of Herod's illness. "I finally concluded that the most likely explanation was that his chronic kidney disease was complicated by an unusual infection of the male genitalia called Fournier's gangrene."…”
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