LINCOLN - A 90-year-old Indiana woman died Sunday night from Legionnaire's disease after swimming in the pool at a Lincoln hotel in February, state health officials confirmed Tuesday.

Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said the woman stayed at then;Best Westernn;Inn, formerly the Comfort Inn, 2811 Woodlawn Road, in the middle of February.

Her illness was one of two that triggered an investigation by the state and the Logan County Health Department that closed the pool earlier this month. Almost 200 people have reported some degree of respiratory illness after authorities began to contact former hotel guests.

"This was the first confirmed victim and it was because of her case and another from Wisconsin that we started to investigate," said Arnold. "After this confirmation, the water at the hotel was then tested and confirmed with the Legionnaire's disease bacteria."

The woman had been hospitalized and placed on a ventilator before she died. No further details on the woman's death were released.

Arnold said the order to close the pool was released March 10 after the pool and whirlpool at the hotel tested positive for a bacteria that can cause Legionellosis, also known as Legionnaires' disease.

Arnold said the whole area around the pool has been locked down and will continue to be until it is scrubbed down with bleach, all the filters are changed and state healthofficials check it twice.

Best Westernn;Inn owner Vasant Patel could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but on March 13 a hotel representative said the pool had been drained and cleaned out and the filters had been changed.

Arnold said health officials already have interviewed about 500 out of about 800 people who have stayed at the hotel in the past few months.

Among those hotel guests, there have been 180 reports of mild respiratory symptoms from those interviewed and 80 of those with symptoms consistent with the disease.