The cause of mysterious symptoms such as hearing loss, tinnitus, dizziness, and ear pain affecting over 20 diplomats stationed in Havana, Cuba in 2016 was never found. Researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and University of Pittsburgh published a report detailing the symptoms , which they said did not resemble traumatic brain injury (TBI). In September 2018, a University of California San Diego School of Medicine study showed that the symptoms matched “known effects of pulsed radiofrequency/microwave electromagnetic (RF/MW) radiation.”
More recent research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and summarized in a Forbes article, showed a lower volume of white matter in the brains of those government employees stationed in Cuba as compared to healthy controls with no history of exposure to sonic injury. Additionally, the government employees has less connectivity in their inner ear networks and differences in their cerebellum, where balance and equilibrium are centered.
To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
Original Paper: Verma R, Swanson RL, Parker D, et al. Neuroimaging findings in US government personnel with possible exposure to directional phenomena in Havana, Cuba. JAMA. 2019;322(4):336-347.
Source: Forbes, JAMA
