Legionella in the Playboy Mansion

Dangerous bacteria in the whirlpool of the Playboy Villa

17/04/2011

The pool landscape in the mansion of the Playboy founder Hugh Heffner is famous notorious and has already been used by countless party guests. Now, the Californian health agency has detected dangerous bacteria of the genus Legionella in a Jacuzzi of 85-year-olds.

After more than a hundred guests complaining of fever and other illness symptoms following a Playboy founder's pool party in February, California health officials discovered Legionella in a Playboy Villa hot tub. The dangerous bacteria cause Legionnaire's disease, which is characterized by pneumonia and possible non-respiratory infections such as inflammation of the heart's lining or pyelonephritis.

Legionnaire's disease caused by bacteria in the spa?
Over a hundred guests attending a charity event at Playboy founder Hugh Heffner's villa suffered chills, cough and respiratory problems after the event „Los Angeles Times“ on Saturday. In the search for the causes, the California health authorities have now discovered the dangerous Legionella bacteria in a hot tub. The bacteria can cause Legionnaire's disease with severe pneumonia and infections of other organs. The Legionella bacteria, for example, in the hot water generation and hot water distribution system, swimming pools, air conditioning, showers, water tanks but also cold water pipes with heat from the outside to prove relatively common. Legionella prefer water temperatures of 25 to 59 degrees Celsius, with a long residence time and simultaneous supply of fresh water. The Legionella contained in the water as aerosols (finest droplets) in the air and so while breathing deep into the lungs, where the rod-shaped bacteria can trigger the Legionnaires' disease with the typical pneumonia. Most of the first symptoms appear two to ten days after contact with the Legionella bacteria. However, with timely diagnosis, the Legionnaire's disease is relatively well treated with antibiotics.

Legionella are distributed worldwide
The so-called Legionella were first discovered in 1976 at a meeting of American war veterans at the Bellevue-Fort Hotel in Philadelphia. 180 of the 4,400 delegates fell ill with severe lung infections, 29 died as a result of the previously unknown epidemic. One year after the mysterious illnesses, the bacterium was discovered in the lung tissue of a deceased veteran. Since Legionella bacteria have been known, regular epidemics of Legionnaires' disease have been registered worldwide. Occasionally infections occur in Germany, but an outbreak of Legionnaires disease with disease character is rare in this country. At the beginning of January 2010, according to official figures, 64 people in the Ulm region suffered from Legionnaire's disease and five people died, with the possible sources of infection primarily being the cooling towers of a combined heat and power plant near Ulm central station. (Fp)

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Picture: aksel