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Abstract
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Members of the US diplomatic community in Havana began visiting the embassy’s medical unit in late December 2016 with symptoms, such as headache and ear pain, that they said began after they encountered strange sounds or sensations.
For months, speculation swirled around the etiology and extent of their ailments, but a new report in JAMA provides the most detailed picture yet of their condition. Clinical evaluation of 21 of the 24 US government personnel suspected as having been targeted by the mysterious “health attacks”—as the State Department calls them—found that most experienced persistent cognitive, balance, hearing, oculomotor dysfunction, or all 4, as well as sleep impairment and headaches, according to the report.
Specialists in physical medicine and rehabilitation, occupational medicine, neurology, neuroradiology, and neurosurgery independently obtained clinical histories and conducted unblinded clinical assessments of the cohort at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia. Clinical assessments included objective and subjective standardized measures of cognition, mood, balance and vestibular function, and vision and oculomotor function. To maintain the patients’ privacy, limited demographic information was disclosed, including only average age and sex (10 men, average age of 39 years; 11 women, average age of 47 years).
On average, 203 days had elapsed from the time they experienced a so-called attack to the time they were evaluated. Virtually all of them reported that symptoms persisted for more than 3 months. At the time of their evaluation, 14 of the 21 had still not returned to work. With comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation, half of the 14 were able to resume working, albeit with restrictions such as reduced hours...
Language: en |