More Research On Diplomat Brain Injuries In Cuba, But Few Answers

Tampa, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Dec, 2018 ) :Diplomats who sustained mysterious brain injuries while stationed in Cuba experienced a cluster of symptoms, including anxiety, mental fog and dizziness, that is more complex than previously reported, scientists said Wednesday.

The problem began in the fall of 2016, when diplomatic personnel residing in Havana began to complain of ear pain after reporting hearing a high frequency noise, or sometimes a feeling of pressure in the ears, which followed them throughout a room.

In September 2017, the United States blamed Havana for failing to protect its diplomats and withdrew more than half its staff from the embassy while expelling 15 Cuban diplomats from Washington.

The new study by experts at the University of Miami and the University of Pittsburgh, published in the journal Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology, did not solve the mystery or assign blame.

But it found "measurable, quantifiable evidence that something really did happen. It is not just hysteria," said Carey Balaban, professor of otolaryngology at the University of Pittsburgh school of Medicine.

"We don't know what they were exposed to and we certainly can't make any inferences as to whether it was deliberate or inadvertent."The symptoms of 25 people were studied in the "acute phase," meaning shortly after diplomats fell ill but before they were diagnosed, the experts said.