At least two U.S. officials stationed in Germany sought medical treatment after developing symptoms of the mysterious health complaint known as Havana Syndrome, according to U.S. diplomats.
The symptoms, which included nausea, severe headaches, ear pain, fatigue, insomnia and sluggishness, began to emerge in recent months and some victims were left unable to work, according to the diplomats. They are the first cases to be reported in a NATO country that hosts U.S. troops and nuclear weapons.
U.S. diplomats said that similar incidents had been registered among American officials stationed in other European nations but declined to provide any detail.
Some victims were intelligence officers or diplomats working on Russia-related issues such as gas exports, cybersecurity and political interference, according to U.S. diplomats and people familiar with an investigation into the illness.
NBC News reported in July about at least one Havana Syndrome case among Berlin-based U.S. diplomats.
The set of symptoms first surfaced in 2016 among U.S. diplomats in Cuba and have since been observed in China, Russia and, more recently, in Austria, a neutral nation. There have been unconfirmed cases in Poland, Taiwan, Georgia and even in Washington, D.C. Some U.S. officials have said the complaints could be caused by attacks using radio-frequency energy such as microwave radiation.
The CIA has tapped a veteran of the agency’s hunt for Osama bin Laden to head a task force aimed at finding the cause of the symptoms, current and former officials familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal last month.
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SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal, Bojan Pancevski
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