Heart infection could be cause of death of Polish, US hero

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Medical and genetics experts in Poland say that a heart infection caused by a common skin bacteria could have caused the 1817 death of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a Polish and U.S. military leader and national hero. Experts from a medical university and from the Polish Academy of Sciences found the genome of the Cutibacterium acne in the wax, wood and linen that had long-term contact with the tissues of Kosciuszko’s heart, which has been preserved. They say it could have led to his death, aged 71. Kosciuszko fought as colonel of the Continental Army in the 1776 American Revolutionary War and in 1794 in Poland, where he commanded an ill-fated uprising against the Russian Empire.