After examining the brains of US diplomats who suffered from hearing loss and neurological symptoms while stationed in Cuba between 2016 and 2018, experts found that they had “been through something”. However, the origins of this phenomenon remain unknown.
Between late 2016 and May 2018, US diplomats stationed in Havana, Cuba started to suffer from hearing loss and various neurological symptoms. Many doctors then looked into their case to try to understand the origins of their illness. Without success. Six two years later the mystery remains whole, the unfortunates keep traces of these symptoms. Indeed, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Medicine (jama) Tuesday, July 23, the brains of about forty of them show significant differences in terms of white matter.
At the request of the US State Department, 44 diplomats and their family members were sent from mid-2017 to the brain trauma center at the University of Pennsylvania to undergo various magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tests. By comparing their results with those of 48 people in control groups, the researchers noticed significant differences in the white matter of the brain as well as the cerebellum, the part that controls movement.
So, although the researchers unfortunately could not explain the causes of the symptoms observed in the diplomats between the end of 2016 and May 2018, these results prove that “their brain underwent something that caused these changes”, explains Ragini Verma, professor of radiology at the University of Pennsylvania, and specialist in medical imaging. “It’s not imaginary (…) It did happen in their brains. All I can say is that the truth remains to be found (…). What happened is not not due to a medical history”, she continues. And to insist on the importance of regularly following all the patients, some of whom are still in rehabilitation, in order to follow the evolutions in their brain.
Cuba immediately disqualified the study
When the study was released, a State Department spokesperson praised “the medical community’s involvement in this incredibly complex issue. The department’s top priority remains the safety, security, and well-being of its personnel.” “.
Cuba, which has always rejected any responsibility in this matter, naturally hastened to disqualify this study. The latter “does not allow us to come to clear final scientific conclusions,” said Mitchell Valdés-Sosa, director of the Cuban State Neuroscience Center, during a press conference on Tuesday. This research “does not prove, contrary to what has been speculated and what is asserted in the previous article (from the jamapublished in March 2018), that a group of diplomats suffered brain damage during their stay in Cuba”, he insists.
It all started at the end of 2016 when several diplomats working at the Cuban embassy as well as members of their families reported strange physical disorders. They complain of “cognitive fog” or various ailments including problems of balance and dizziness, coordination, eye movement, as well as anxiety, irritability. From August, the American department begins to repatriate diplomats.
New tensions a year after the reopening of the American embassy in Cuba
In order to avoid a diplomatic crisis a little more than a year after the reopening of the American embassy in Cuba after 54 years of cold war, the American administration speaks first of incidents. Before finally evoking “attacks”. The idea of a “sonic attack” of a new kind is notably put forward by a union of American diplomacy. However, the doctors in charge of the case hasten to dismiss this theory. “There is no known mechanism that allows audible sound to damage the brain. We have to suspect it’s a consequence of something else,” they say.
At the same time, the BBC reveals that five Canadian nationals and their families are also affected. Before being repatriated, they evoke “slight brain damage of traumatic origin and a permanent loss of hearing”, as well as a loss of balance, acute migraines, cognitive disorders and cerebral edema ” But while all of the victims have symptoms resembling a concussion, no one has a history of head trauma, notes Dr. Christopher Muth, then in charge of studying US diplomats. because we have no information to compare the brain or hearing health of the patients before they left for Cuba. Consequence: before reaching definitive conclusions, it is necessary to obtain additional evidence and to evaluate it rigorously and objectively”, he then warns.
As a result of this strange affair, Donald Trump, who had already reinforced the embargo against Cuba in force since 9162, reduced half of the American diplomatic presence in Cuba and to proceed with a visa application for the United States, Cubans must now travel to a third country.
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