TEHRAN, September 14 - U.S. and Cuban officials met at the State Department on Thursday to discuss the mysterious health problems that have affected more than two dozen American Embassy personnel, a situation that led to a reduction in staffing at the Havana mission and a chill in ties between the countries.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - "There's a briefing taking place between some of our colleagues from our various bureaus. They are having meetings with the Cuban government to discuss some of the medical issues that our people have experienced," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a briefing.
Nauert, who declined to discuss details about the meeting, said the talks involved medical personnel and experts on the situation, as well as officials from the Cuban government.
Later on Thursday, Cuban members of the medical delegation that attended the meeting told reporters that they rejected the conclusion by U.S. officials that the affected Americans' medical conditions were the same across the group.
"We are unable to collectively support the hypothesis of health attacks and brain damage to U.S. diplomats as the explanations of the symptoms," the panel said.
They added, however that the illnesses were legitimate and may have had a psychological origin rather than a physical one.
"We cannot say it all can be explained by psychological challenges, but it cannot be discounted," said Pedro Antonio Valdés, a neuroscientist and one of the medical doctors on the panel.
At least 26 Americans have been affected by a mysterious illness at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba with symptoms that included hearing loss, tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, vertigo, headaches and fatigue, a pattern consistent with mild traumatic brain injury, State Department officials have said.
The illnesses, which first appeared last year, were initially described as the result of sonic attacks or health attacks.
But on Thursday, the Cuban doctors said their review of the evidence showed that only three individuals with mild to moderate hearing loss were found, which could have been from preexisting conditions.
They also said that the evidence reviewed failed to demonstrate brain damage, and that it proved that only two to three of the American subjects had cognitive dysfunction.
Source: Reuters
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