There have been more than 130 incidents of unexplained brain injury known as Havana Syndrome among US diplomats, spies and defence officials, some of them within the past few weeks, The Guardian reports.
It quotes The New York Times as saying that three CIA officers had reported serious symptoms since December, following overseas assignments, requiring outpatient treatment at the Walter Reed military hospital in Washington.
The reported number of cases is about 70 more than had previously been acknowledged.
A number of US media outlets reported this week that US officials are investigating a second case of a National Security Council official who suffered injuries near the White House consistent with the so-called Havana Syndrome. The official suffered more serious symptoms than a case reported last month and sought medical treatment.
In April, it was reported that a National Security Council official began experiencing symptoms near the Ellipse park south of the White House. That person suffered mild symptoms such as headaches and sleeplessness, which subsided after a week.
A White House official also experienced symptoms in a Virginia suburb in 2019 while walking her dog.
Mark Zaid, who represents some former officials afflicted by Havana Syndrome, said he had been contacted by more people who believed they had been affected. “The numbers are definitely increasing,” he said.
US officials confirmed that there continued to be fresh cases under review but cautioned that the publicity given to previous Havana Syndrome cases had led some people to reinterpret symptoms they were suffering and wonder whether they may have been victims of some form of attack they had not previously suspected. So the number of new cases did not necessarily reflect the number of new incidents.
In December, the National Academy of Sciences published a report saying that the brain injuries suffered by US government employees in Cuba and China were most likely the result of some form of directed energy.
Cheryl Rofer, a former chemist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, has questioned the study’s conclusions, and the claim by victims and some experts that some kind of microwave weapon developed by an adversary is responsible for Havana syndrome.
“The evidence for microwave effects of the type categorised as Havana Syndrome is exceedingly weak,” Rofer wrote in Foreign Policy. “No proponent of the idea has outlined how the weapon would actually work. No evidence has been offered that such a weapon has been developed by any nation. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and no evidence has been offered to support the existence of this mystery weapon.”
Full The Guardian report (Open access)
See also from the MedicalBrief archives:
Havana Syndrome' likely caused by directed microwaves — US National Academies of Sciences
Fumigation neurotoxin may be cause of Cuban ‘sonic attacks’