No evidence of brain injury in people suffering ‘Havana Syndrome’: US study
Al Jazeera
US research agency finds no ‘biological abnormalities’ in US officials reporting incidents, but says symptoms are real.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States has found no evidence that government employees reporting symptoms of the “Havana Syndrome” suffer from “biological abnormalities”, including brain injury.
In a statement announcing its study on Monday, the US medical research agency stressed that, despite its findings, the unexplained ailments “are very real”.
First reported in the Cuban capital Havana in 2016, the syndrome results in vertigo, headaches, cognitive dysfunction and ear-ringing. Since then, US foreign service and intelligence personnel have reported enduring such symptoms across the world.
“Using advanced imaging techniques and in-depth clinical assessments, a research team at the National Institutes of Health found no significant evidence of MRI-detectable brain injury, nor differences in most clinical measures compared to controls, among a group of federal employees who experienced anomalous health incidents (AHIs),” the NIH said in a statement on Monday.
The study compared test results and MRI imaging between healthy volunteers and more than 80 US government employees and their relatives who are experiencing “anomalous health incidents”.
