Mystery Illness Hits Playboy Mansion Partygoers

Feb. 13, 2011— -- The chance to party it up at the Playboy Mansion is one of the most coveted invitations in the world, but this ticket to paradise may have come with a painful parting gift.

The Los Angeles Department of Public Health is investigating a suspected respiratory infection outbreak among attendees of the DOMAINfest Global Conference, which drew more than 700 people from around the world.

The main activities of the conference on Internet business, which ran Feb. 1-3, were held at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, Calif., but many participants also attended events at other locations, including the famed Playboy Mansion, which is in Holmby Hills.

The health department issued a statement saying it is investigating the cause and source of the illness, and said that nothing indicated the suspected outbreak extended beyond the attendees of the conference.

Eighty conference guests were reported sick, and at least four participants were reportedly diagnosed with a mild form of Legionnaires disease, an illness characterized by fever, headaches and aches all over the body.

"Outbreaks of legionnaire's disease are not that common," Dr. Stephen Jones of Northridge Hospital Medical Center told ABC Los Angeles station KABC-TV. "We'll see just sporadic outbreaks every once in a while, usually in groups of people who have been exposed to the bacteria, usually through some kind of contaminated air conditioning system."

David Castello, 54, said just a couple days after enjoying his last night at a Los Angeles-area tech industry conference by networking at the Playboy Mansion's lingerie lounge party he was bedridden.