what’s Havana Syndrome? Symptoms, causes?
In: Biology
It’s a cluster of health problems affecting a small number of American and Canadian diplomats, originally ones based in Havana but now several other places too, including China, Germany and even an official based in the White House. These people have reported symptoms including nausea, hearing loss and memory loss, and some medical tests have apparently found signs of brain injury, but this is disputed.
The US government has suggested that the symptoms may have been caused by unknown sonic or microwave weapons deployed by the Cuban government or other governments it regards as enemies. Other people have suggested more mundane causes, such as psychological factors, exposure to certain pesticides or other harmful chemicals, or a coincidental cluster of unrelated medical problems that happen to have similar symptoms. Possibly it’s a mixture of several of these. Certainly once there is a widespread belief that diplomats are being targeted by mystery weapons that cause brain injury, it shouldn’t be surprising if some diplomats develop psychosomatic health problems.
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