Mysterious illness hits U.S. official

BEIJING— A U.S. government employee posted in southern China has signs of possible brain trauma after reporting disturbing sounds and sensations, the State Department said Wednesday, in events that seemed to draw parallels with mysterious ailments that struck U.S. diplomats in Cuba.

The State Department warning, issued through the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, advised U.S. citizens in China to seek medical help if they felt similar symptoms. It said that no other cases had been reported.

“A U.S. government employee in China recently reported subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure,” the health alert said. “We do not currently know what caused the reported symptoms and we are not aware of any similar situations in China, either inside or outside of the diplomatic community.”

The employee was working in Guangzhou and “reported experiencing a variety of physical symptoms” from late 2017 until April, Jinnie Lee, a spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, said in an email.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday that medical teams were heading to Guangzhou to address the issue. “The medical indications are very similar and entirely consistent with the medical indications that have taken place to Americans working in Cuba,” he said.

The embassy was told Friday that “the clinical findings of this evaluation matched mild traumatic brain injury,” according to Lee.