Doctors are releasing the first detailed medical reports about the mysterious symptoms suffered by US diplomats in Cuba last year.
University of Pennsylvania researchers have confirmed the diplomats suffered brain injuries, but said the cases weren’t accompanied by head trauma, as would have been expected, and there is no clear diagnosis of the trigger.
The symptoms are similar to the brain dysfunction seen with concussions, concluded the team of specialists, who tested 21 of the 24 embassy personnel thought to be affected.
Whatever the cause, the Havana patients ‘experienced persisting disability of a significant nature,’ the Penn team concluded – despite Cuba insisting there were no attacks.
Doctors are releasing the first detailed medical reports about the mysterious symptoms suffered by US diplomats in Cuba last year, confirming the diplomats suffered brain injuries, but said the cases weren’t accompanied by head trauma, as would have been expected
The symptoms are similar to the brain dysfunction seen with concussions, concluded the team of specialists, who tested 21 of the 24 embassy personnel thought to be affected but there has been no trigger determined
The Journal of the American Medical Association released the report late on Wednesday, although key findings were first disclosed by The Associated Press in December.
The mystery began in late 2016 when diplomats at the US Embassy first began noticing health symptoms that they associated with weird sounds or vibrations heard in their homes, leading investigators to believe it was a ‘sonic attack’.
The diplomats all suffered from a combination of symptoms including ringing in one ear, sharp ear pain, headaches, vertigo, memory problems, impaired concentration, irritability, and balance problems and dizziness.
Wednesday’s report makes clear that the findings are preliminary, essentially a listing of symptoms and tests.
Important complications still remain, including that the lack of information to compare the patients’ brain or hearing health before they went to Cuba.
‘Before reaching any definitive conclusions, additional evidence must be obtained and rigorously and objectively evaluated,’ JAMA associated editor Dr Christopher Muth cautioned in an accompanying editorial. He noted that many of the symptoms overlap with a list of other neurological illnesses.
‘It really looks like concussion without the history of head trauma,’ report co-author Dr Douglas Smith of Penn’s Center for Brain Injury and Repair said in a podcast provided by JAMA.
The mystery began in late 2016 when diplomats at the US Embassy first began noticing health symptoms that they associated with weird sounds or vibrations heard in their homes, leading investigators to believe it was a ‘sonic attack’
Doctors detected abnormalities in the white matter tracts of the embassy workers. White matter tracts (right) are the ‘highways’ that connect regions of the brain. They are essential for passing information to different parts of the brain
He said that the sound, heard by 18 of the 21 patients, couldn’t be to blame, adding: ‘There is no known mechanism for audible sound to injure the brain. We have to suspect that it’s a consequence of something else.’
The mysterious case has sent US-Cuba relations plummeting from what had been a high point when the two countries, estranged for a half-century, restored relations under former President Barack Obama in 2015.
Cuba is also conducting an investigation, but has complained that the American government has shared so little information about patients that it is having trouble reaching any conclusions.
The new report outlined the battery of testing the patients underwent, including some findings that can’t be even unconsciously altered, bolstering the doctors’ belief that the symptoms were not mass hysteria.
At least six people had a change in work performance noted by supervisors and colleagues, the JAMA report found.
The mysterious case has sent US-Cuba relations plummeting from what had been a high point when the two countries, estranged for a half-century, restored relations under former President Barack Obama in 2015
Cuba is also conducting an investigation, but has complained that the American government has shared so little information about patients that it is having trouble reaching any conclusions
Viruses or chemical exposures are unlikely, Smith’s team wrote, although they couldn’t be ‘systematically excluded’.
Advanced MRI scans spotted ‘a few’ changes in what are called white matter tracts of the brain in some patients, with three showing more than would be expected for their age, the report said. But the authors acknowledged those abnormalities could be due to something earlier in life.
For many the symptoms lasted months, and doctors designed customized rehabilitation therapy that did seem to help.
The State Department, which wasn’t involved in writing the JAMA article but reviewed it to ensure it did not contain any classified information, issued a health alert on Wednesday citing the article ‘in order to inform US citizens and medical providers.’
‘We encourage private US citizens who have traveled to Cuba and are concerned about their symptoms to share this article with their doctor,’ the State Department said.