Hot Tub Bacteria May Have Spread Illness at Playboy Mansion

Hanging out in Hef's hot tub with the babes could make you sick.

LA health officials told the Centers for Disease Control that the jacuzzi at te Playboy Mansion contained the bacteria that causes Legionnaire's Disease. The finding may have explained why scores of people who attended a February fundraiser at the famed party house became ill.

The bacteria that made at least 123 people sick causes a milder illness called Pontiac Fever, which causes headaches and raised temperatures. The presence of the bacteria was first reported last month, but health officials formally presented their findings Friday at an anual conference of the CDC in Alanta.

Still, officials were unable to say conclusively it was something in the water.

“Though Legionella bacteria was identified in a water sample taken from the Playboy Mansion, this bacteria has not been determined as the source of the respiratory outbreak," said a statement from the LA County Department of Public Health. "Other potential causes under investigation include influenza, as three individuals who attended the conference tested later positive for the flu."

Selected Reading: LA Times, The Associated Press, Contra Costa Times.

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