The US investigative agency finds no “biological anomalies” in US officials who reported incidents, but says the symptoms are real.
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has found no evidence that government employees who report symptoms of “Havana Syndrome” suffer from “biological abnormalities,” including brain injuries.
In a statement announcing its study on Monday, the US medical research agency stressed that, despite its findings, unexplained ailments “are very real.”
First reported in Havana, the Cuban capital, in 2016, the syndrome causes vertigo, headaches, cognitive dysfunction and ringing in the ears. Since then, U.S. foreign service and intelligence personnel have reported experiencing similar symptoms around the world.
“Using advanced imaging techniques and in-depth clinical evaluations, a National Institutes of Health research team found no significant evidence of brain injury detectable by MRI, nor differences in most clinical measures compared to controls, among a group of federal employees who experienced abnormal health incidents (AHI),” the NIH said in a statement Monday.
The study compared test results and MRI scans between healthy volunteers and more than 80 U.S. government employees and their family members who are experiencing “abnormal health incidents.”
“The researchers were unable to identify a consistent set of imaging abnormalities that could differentiate participants with IAH from controls,” the NIH said.
US President Joe Biden's administration had promised to work “tirelessly” to address Havana syndrome.
In November 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken named two officials to lead the government's response to the issue, calling it an “urgent priority” for Washington.
Earlier that year, possible cases of “Havana Syndrome” at the US embassy in Hanoi led Vice President Kamala Harris to delay a visit to Vietnam by three hours.
There was initial speculation that the symptoms could be caused by microwaves deliberately aimed at US officials abroad.
But several U.S. intelligence agencies concluded last year that it was “very unlikely” that a foreign adversary was responsible for Havana syndrome. Their conclusions were published in a report by the National Intelligence Council.
Still, U.S. officials have tried to acknowledge that those who report symptoms are actually suffering from ailments.
Carlo Pierpaoli, lead author of the NIH study, said the lack of evidence of differences in neurological imaging between healthy individuals and those who experience IAH “does not exclude that an adverse event affecting the brain has occurred” in people with symptoms of the Havana syndrome.
“It is possible that people with an AHI may be experiencing the results of an event that caused their symptoms, but the injury did not produce the long-term neuroimaging changes typically seen after severe trauma or stroke,” he said. Pierpaoli in a statement.
“We hope that these results will alleviate concerns about the association of AHI with serious neurodegenerative changes in the brain.”
