There are more than 20 new cases of the 'Havana Syndrome' among US diplomats in Vienna, Austria that are being looked at by medica...
There are more than 20 new cases of the 'Havana Syndrome' among US diplomats in Vienna, Austria that are being looked at by medical teams at the State Department, Pentagon and CIA.
It's part of a recent rash of mysterious health incidents that have similar symptoms to those first reported by US diplomats and spies in Havana, Cuba, in 2016 and 2017 for which no definitive cause has yet been determined.
Symptoms include headaches, dizziness and symptoms consistent with concussions and some have required months of medical treatment. Some have reported hearing a loud noise before the sudden onset of symptoms.
'In coordination with our partners across the US government, we are vigorously investigating reports of possible unexplained health incidents among the US Embassy Vienna community,' the State Department said.
'Any employees who reported a possible UHI received immediate and appropriate attention and care.'
Pictured is the US Embassy in Vienna, Austria, where two dozen US diplomats have reported symptoms of 'Havana Syndrome'
Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks with meeting with Chile's Foreign Minister Andres Allamand, Friday
Symptoms include headaches, dizziness and symptoms consistent with concussions and some have required months of medical treatment
Some believe the unexplained injuries, which include brain damage, are the result of attacks with microwave or radio wave weapons.
James Giordano, a senior fellow in biotechnology at the US Naval War College, said American adversaries have developed these weapons in an interview with The Guardian earlier this month, amid a Pentagon probe to determine what has caused the government workers to become ill.
Giordano claims one US company made a prototype of a small portable weapon capable of causing such effects back in the early 2000s before research was abandoned.
He says he has discovered that other countries have developed a similar device that 'uses microwave frequencies able to disrupt brain function without any burning sensation.'
'This was important – and rather frightening – because it represented a state of advancement and sophistication of these types of instruments that heretofore had not been thought to be accomplished,' he told the publication.
However, despite years of study, there is no consensus as to what or who might be behind the incidents or whether they are, in fact, attacks.
The Vienna-based employees have reported suffering from mysterious symptoms since President Joe Biden was inaugurated, according to the officials.
The Vienna cases were first reported Friday by The New Yorker magazine.
For centuries, Vienna has been a center for espionage and diplomacy and was a hub for clandestine spy-versus-spy activity during the Cold War.
The city is currently the site of indirect talks between Iran and the United States over salvaging the nuclear deal that was negotiated there in 2015.
Those talks are now in hiatus and it was not immediately clear if any members of the US negotiating team were among those suffering from injuries.
The problem has been labeled the 'Havana Syndrome,' because the first cases affected personnel in 2016 at the US Embassy in Cuba.
In May, officials said at least 130 cases across the government were under investigation, up from several dozen last year.
People who are believed to have been affected have reported headaches, dizziness and symptoms consistent with concussions, with some requiring months of medical treatment.
Some have reported hearing a loud noise before the sudden onset of symptoms.
Particularly alarming are revelations of at least two possible incidents in the Washington area, including one case near the White House in November in which an official reported dizziness.
Although some are convinced the injuries are the result of directed energy attacks, others believe the growing number of cases could actually be linked to 'mass psychogenic illness,' in which people learning of others with symptoms begin to feel sick themselves.
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