25 at Meeting Fall Sick; Food Blamed

Twenty-five doctors and other medical experts attending a conference at the Century Plaza hotel became sick Sunday after a luncheon meeting.

A Los Angeles Fire Department official said the illness may have been caused by halibut served to about 400 guests of the Los Angeles Radiological Society’s conference. Most of the sick guests, who vomited and complained of nausea, were treated by paramedics at the hotel. Six women were treated at Beverly Hills Medical Center and released.

Although the fish was suspected, all items offered at the lunch were removed from the hotel menu as a precaution, hotel officials said.

Fire spokesman Greg Acevedo said the 25 people “came down with the same symptoms that would be consistent with food poisoning.”

The county Department of Health Services was investigating.