Cuba baffled by US claims envoys suffered mysterious brain malady

CUBA HAS said it remains baffled by health issues affecting US diplomats after the US State Department reported two Cuba-based functionaries had symptoms similar to previous cases that began in late 2016.

The State Department said last week the cases were similar to those of 24 diplomats and family members taken ill last year, leading to a scaling down of personnel in Havana to a skeleton staff and the expulsion of 17 Cuban diplomats from Washington.

The US also issued a travel warning for its citizens.

Sunday’s Cuban Foreign Ministry statement pointed out that “after more than a year of investigations by Cuba and the United States there are no credible hypotheses nor scientific conclusions that justify the actions taken by the US government against Cuba”.

The statement said Cuba was informed of one case in late May where “a functionary of the US embassy on the 27th of the same month had reported health symptoms as a result of undefined sounds in her residence”.

The statement said an exhaustive search of the area around the residence had turned up nothing out of the ordinary and its specialists had been denied access to the functionary.

US experts have yet to determine who or what is behind the mysterious illnesses.

The administration of President Donald Trump first charged that the diplomats were the victims of “sonic attacks” and Cuba as the host country was responsible for their safety. Symptoms included hearing loss, tinnitus, vertigo, headaches and fatigue, a pattern consistent with “mild traumatic brain injury”, State Department officials have said.

In April, Canada, whose personnel were also stricken, said it would remove families of diplomats posted at its embassy in Cuba as information from medical specialists has raised concerns of a new type of brain injury.

The US State Department said on Wednesday it had taken some diplomats home from Guangzhou, China, over concerns they were suffering from a mysterious malady that resembles a brain injury and has already affected US personnel in Cuba.