OKLAHOMA - - A trip to Oklahoma City for a national basketball tournament for home-schooled children turned into an uncomfortably close encounter with a dangerous bacterium for 13 local residents.  The contingent of players and family members from Elkhart and LaGrange counties, Indiana stayed at a hotel that Oklahoma health officials believe harbored the bacterium that causes Legionnaires' disease.  7 members of the group became sick with symptoms of Pontiac fever, according to Kristy Bradley, interim epidemiologist for the Oklahoma State Health Department.  Pontiac fever is caused by _Legionella pneumophila_, the same pathogen that causes Legionnaires' but is considerably less dangerous. Neither disease is spread from person-to-person.

The 13 local residents who stayed at the hotel, a Comfort Suites facility, included players, coaches, and family members who were participating in the National Christian Home-school Basketball & Family Conference. The event drew 6000 people and 240 teams from around the nation.  The local group includes residents of Middlebury, Bristol, Howe, and Shipshewana, health officials said.

Bradley said the investigation is focusing on a room that houses the hotel's pool and hot tub, and where the contingent held daily devotional meetings.  Members of a group from Houston, which was also participating in the tournament and conference and staying at the hotel, also became sick.  Bradley also said about 65 people, all from the Indiana and Houston groups, have reported becoming sick with the milder Pontiac illness. Their symptoms have included rapid onset of fever, chills, fatigue, muscle aches, and headache.

The disease came to light on Sat, 20 Mar 2004, when members of the 2 teams became sick and had to forfeit some of their games, Bradley said. Since both teams happened to be staying at the Comfort Suites, that facility became the obvious suspected source of the illness.

Peg Ramey, director of community nursing for the Elkhart County Health Department, said an outbreak of disease caused by the Legionella bacterium does not require a health department investigation to identify people who may have come into contact with infected individuals.  That's only done when the disease in question can be spread from person to person, not the case with this organism.

Bradley said 10 of the 13 affected local residents were interviewed by Oklahoma state health officials before they left for the return trip to Indiana. She said she's confident that the remaining 3 know about their possible exposure because they're related to some of the people who were interviewed.

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