BEL AIR/BEVERLY HILLS—Health officials have identified legionella bacteria in a whirlpool spa at the Playboy Mansion as the cause for the widespread illness that occurred after a February fundraiser.

Playboy Mansion

After the DOMAINFest conference was held at the Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills from February 1 to 3, many people came down with a respiratory illness.

Officials investigated the cause of the outbreak, and after identifying the more severe version of this illness as Legionnaires' disease, they began inspecting to see if legionellosis was the cause.

The less severe version of the illness is called Pontiac fever.

Out of the 439 attendees who were contacted by Los Angeles County public health officials, 123 experienced a fever and at least one other symptom following the event, including a cough, headache, shortness of breath or aches. Additionally, 69 of those afflicted fell sick on the same day, February 3.

Officials conducted their investigation in an unusual manner, using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to survey those who attended the fundraiser. They used this method due to the fact that attendees traveled from 30 different countries to go to the conference, and social media provided the most feasible means of contacting every attendee.

The online survey, which was used to determine the extent of the outbreak, showed that 79 people who attended the conference fell ill, in addition to those who had already been contacted by health officials.

Several of those who took the survey said that they had been diagnosed with legionellosis, but health officials were unable to verify this through test results. However, these attendees did test positive for H1N1.

Since the same bacteria has been discovered at the mansion, health officials have ruled that exposure to the bacteria at the mansion is a probable cause of the illness experienced by those who attended the conference.

However, officials have stated that legionellosis has not been determined as the official cause of the respiratory outbreak.

The results of the investigation were made public on April 15 in a presentation by Los Angeles County health officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's annual Epidemic Intelligence Service conference in Atlanta.

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