HIS death sent conspiracy theorists into overdrive, but it now looks possible that Slobodan Milosevic accidentally brought on his death by trying to make a real illness appear worse.
The 64-year-old former president of Yugoslavia died of a heart attack on 11 March while detained by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague in the Netherlands. An autopsy revealed normal levels of prescription cardiovascular drugs in his blood, and no poisons or non-prescribed drugs. However, a blood sample taken on 12 January contained the antibiotic rifampicin, which had not been prescribed.
Milosevic was known to have had non-prescribed drugs smuggled to him, and three days before he died he became aware that his use of rifampicin had been discovered. If he had stopped taking it then, any trace would have gone before the autopsy.
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鈥淢ilosevic may have tried to make his heart problem look as if it wasn鈥檛 responding鈥�
Rifampicin stimulates production of liver enzymes that destroy other drugs, including some of those used to treat heart irregularities and high blood pressure. It is possible Milosevic used the drug to make his existing heart problem look as if it was not responding to treatment, in support of his repeated requests to be taken to Moscow for medical attention. The damage that the drug caused, or the shock of suddenly stopping taking it, may have triggered the heart attack.
