Health officials have confirmed that the “whirlpool spa” aka the hot tub aka probably the grotto at the Playboy Mansion was ground zero for a legionella bacteria outbreak. It’s being held responsible for causing a number of people to get sick at an early February conference.
The DomainFest’s conference held from February 1-3 resulted in 123 people getting sick (out of the 439 contacted) with fever and headache, cough, shortness of breath, or aches. 69 (heh) people even got sick on the same day! The frequency made health officials wonder just what the heck happened.
After diagnosing cases of legionellosis, health officials tested areas where the conference hosted events and scoured through blogs, Twitter and Facebook of the 715 conference attendees to figure out the outbreak. One of those places, the Playboy Mansion which held a fundraiser for the conference, was found to have traces of legionella bacteria in its hot tub. Grosso grotto.
The investigation is still ongoing but officials have concluded that if you went into the hot tub in the Playboy Mansion around that time, your chance of getting sick was much higher. [LA Times]
Image Credit: Indirani