{"id":215041,"date":"2020-03-06T15:18:22","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T20:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=215041"},"modified":"2020-03-06T15:18:22","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T20:18:22","slug":"is-there-a-havana-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/is-there-a-havana-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"Is there a \u201cHavana Syndrome\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Dr. Mitchell Vald\u00e9s-Sosa, one of the directors of the Cuban Neuroscience Center (CNEURO), is asked about the so-called \u201cHavana Syndrome,\u201d he replies without hesitation that he doesn\u2019t believe it exists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that there really is no \u2018Havana Syndrome\u2019. What we think is that there are people who got sick from different causes and that we must continue the investigations to verify this or any other hypothesis,\u201d he said about the health incidents reported by North American diplomats in the Cuban capital, which have been the source of the most diverse theories and speculations.<\/p>\n

Several of these hypotheses were the subject of analysis this week at the CNEURO, during the holding of the Is There a Havana’s Syndrome? lthe holding of the Is There a Havana Syndrome?\u201d event<\/a>, which, according to Vald\u00e9s-Sosa, sought to promote an \u201copen and frank\u201d debate about what happened. For this, the debates were attended by researchers and academics from several countries, including Cuba, United States and Canada, the main countries involved in this plot with hues of mystery and with an unquestionable political repercussion.<\/p>\n

After the first U.S. reports in Havana, three years ago, the Trump administration\u2015wanting to dismantle the \u201cthaw\u201d promoted by Barack Obama\u2015did not hesitate to claim that its diplomats were targeted. And, although he did not directly blame Cuba, he did blame it for not adequately protecting its officials and ended up drastically reducing its diplomatic presence on the island and transferring consular procedures for Cubans to third countries, among other measures.<\/p>\n

The reports of U.S. diplomats would be followed by those of Canada, which also suspended most of its consular services in Cuba, but did not focus on what happened from a political nuance and assumed a more collaborative stance with Cuban authorities and researchers than that of its U.S. neighbors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Slide on health incidents reported by North American diplomats in Cuba, presented during the debates of the Is There a Havana Syndrome? event held at the Cuban Neuroscience Center on March 2 and 3, 2020. Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In total, about 40 U.S. and Canadian diplomats working in Havana reported affectations related to the mysterious \u201csyndrome,\u201d whose symptoms include dizziness, nausea, hearing loss, low concentration, blurred vision, memory loss and other neurological problems.<\/p>\n

The case has aroused many passions and questions, and has motivated numerous journalistic and scientific articles\u2015some of them criticized by other researchers, even now in the Havana event, such as the one published by doctors from the University of Pennsylvania in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)<\/a><\/em>\u2015but the cause of the incidents remains unknown.<\/p>\n

Sonic attacks? Neurotoxins?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first theory that was publicly handled, which gained rapid media relevance without having been proven by science, was that of alleged sonic attacks. The hearing conditions reported weighed more on the balance than other symptoms, to the point that today, many months later, these health incidents continue to be called that way by some people and the media, even though the researchers have already rejected that first hypothesis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of \u200b\u200ban attack is absurd and there is no scientific evidence to support it,\u201d says Vald\u00e9s-Sosa, a position consistently repeated by researchers and the Cuban government in the face of accusations by the State Department.<\/p>\n

Cuba: no hay evidencia cient\u00edfica de \u201cataques\u201d a diplom\u00e1ticos norteamericanos<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n