Explained: The truth behind mysterious ailment Havana Syndrome afflicting US officials and spies since 2016

Remember when United States diplomats and spies fell ill to the mysterious ailment known as ‘Havana Syndrome’? Then there were concerns that the sickness was the doing of an adversarial foreign country.

However, an assessment by US intelligence has now revealed that it is “very unlikely” that a foreign power was at play or was the result of a targeted campaign by an enemy of the US. The findings are similar to an interim report by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) last year that found it unlikely that the “anomalous health incidents,” as they are formally known, were the caused by “a sustained worldwide campaign” by Russia or any other foreign actor.

What exactly is ‘Havana Syndrome’? What has the US report now revealed? We take a closer look.

Past Havana Syndrome cases

The Havana syndrome, initially unnamed, first surfaced in December, 2016, among officials who were part of the American and Canadian diplomatic missions to Havana, Cuba, in the wake of an apparent thaw in the US-Cuba relations. Its symptoms range from mild headaches to permanent brain damage and the mysterious illness since then has affected scores of diplomats, spies and their family members.

Those who suffered from this mysterious ailment complained of:
>> hearing harsh mechanical and/or experiencing uncomfortable pressure
>> Vertigo, vision problems, and difficulty concentrating
>> Hearing loss
>> Intense nausea and headaches
>> Insomnia
>> Brain damage
>> Memory loss
>> Cognitive difficulties

In 2021, there were a spate of US officials who were struck by this mysterious ailment. In August of 2021, US vice president Kamala Harris’ flight to Vietnam was delayed by several hours after a possible case of the so-called Havana Syndrome in Hanoi. At the time of the incident, little information was available, but then White House press secretary Jen Psaki had said that someone in Hanoi had come down with ‘Havana Syndrome’.

Later in September that year, a member of CIA director William Burns’ delegation reported symptoms consistent with the mysterious Havana syndrome and had to receive medical attention during his visit to India. CNN reported that the incident set off alarm bells within the US government.

According to the CIA, over 200 US officials have fallen ill with Havana Syndrome. Other countries from which American officials have reported this ailment include Colombia, Russia, China and Uzbekistan. Cases ascribed to the ‘Havana Syndrome’ have also been reported from within the US.

While the symptoms resolved for some of the affected employees, for others, the effects lingered and posed a significant obstacle to their work and affected normal functioning of lives.

Theories around it

As Americans continued to fall sick by this mysterious ailment, theories proliferated as to what was causing it. One of the early theories was that malfunctioning or improperly placed Cuban surveillance equipment could have caused the sickness.

Later, as many officials complained of hearing high-pitched ringing in their ears, it was believed that some kind of “acoustic weapon” had been used. However, the US Air Force, after some experiments, concluded that any such effort using sound waves would be “unlikely” to succeed due to “basic physical principles.”

A 2018 study published in the journal Neural Computation by Beatrice Alexandra Golomb concluded that the syndrome was caused by pulsed radiofrequency/microwave radiation exposure.

The Havana Syndrome cases sparked suspicions that Russia or another rival was conducting campaigns to hurt US officials.

New US intel report findings

On Wednesday, after a multi-year investigation, US intelligence concluded that Havana Syndrome was not caused by an energy weapon or foreign adversary.

The findings are a joint effort of seven intelligence agencies who reviewed approximately 1,000 cases of “anomalous health incidents,” the term the US government used for it. Of the seven, five determined, as per a Washington Post report, that it was “very unlikely” that a foreign adversary was responsible for the symptoms, either as the result of purposeful actions — such as a directed energy weapon — or as the byproduct of some other activity, including electronic surveillance that unintentionally could have made people sick.

One other considered it “unlikely” and another declined to state a conclusion.

CIA director William J Burns said the assessment is “one of the largest and most intensive investigations in the Agency’s history,” stating that it “reflects more than two years of rigorous, painstaking collection, investigative work, and analysis by agencies, including CIA.”

In a statement he said, “I want to be absolutely clear: these findings do not call into question the experiences and real health issues that US Government personnel and their family members — including CIA’s own officers — have reported while serving our country,” he said.

However, not everyone is happy with the assessment. Mark Zaid, a lawyer for more than two dozen people who have reported injuries, was quoted as telling the Associated Press that the new assessment lacked transparency and left key questions unanswered.

“Until the shrouds of secrecy are lifted and the analysis that led to today’s assertions are available and subject to proper challenge, the alleged conclusions are substantively worthless,” he said in a statement. “But the damage it has caused to the morale of the victims, particularly by deflecting from the government’s failure to evaluate all the evidence, is real and must be condemned.”

With inputs from agencies

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