The CIA doctor was among the first to travel to Cuba in 2017 to investigate the “Havana Syndrome” that mysteriously afflicted US diplomats and officials.
The doctor, Paul Andrews, told the network:CNNThe news is that he contracted the same disease during his trip to Havana.
Andrews, who uses a pseudonym to speak out, was already studying the first victims of what is known as “Havana Syndrome” or officially as “anomalies”.
Doctors in Florida recorded a series of symptoms that showed the victims had a brain injury affecting their balance, among other effects.
The syndrome first appeared in 2016 when dozens of diplomats at the US Embassy in Cuba were infected, which is the reason for calling these symptoms “Havana syndrome”.
and Havana syndrome, a disease that causes symptoms such as migraines, dizziness and memory confusion. About 200 US diplomats, former officials, and their family members abroad are believed to have contracted the disease.
In the spring of 2017, Andrews traveled to Cuba to investigate about two months after learning of the first cases without being concerned for his safety.
On the first night, he went to sleep around 11:30 p.m. in his hotel room. Just before 5 a.m., Andrews awoke with excruciating pain in his right ear, nausea, and a terrible headache.
Later, he began to hear a disturbing crackling sound, a symptom previously reported by previous victims of the onset of the disease.
Previously, Andrews had only heard this voice in audio clips, as he had initially thought he was dreaming.
“It couldn’t have happened,” Andrews recalls. “I sat on the edge of the bed for a minute and the symptoms were getting worse…I was really in disbelief and started thinking, was this a dream?”
By 6 a.m., the CIA doctor decided to pack his bags and leave the room, where the symptoms never subsided.
However, he found himself barely able to pack his belongings. He says he has gone to the bathroom “at least four or five times” to make sure he holds his toothbrush.
On his way to meet his colleagues in the hotel cafeteria, he couldn’t tell if he was supposed to push or pull the doors. He realized that his equilibrium was “out of reach”.
Later, Andrews said he was in a fog: feeling nauseous and disoriented and struggling with simple tasks like counting money and showing his ID to security staff.
When he returned to the United States, he called the same doctor in Florida who had been working with him to investigate the original victims, and told him he needed help.
These health incidents remain a source of mystery and controversy within the US intelligence community.
In February, an intelligence report said that some medical symptoms of Havana syndrome are likely caused by exposure to electromagnetic energy pulses and ultrasound, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The report stated that medical injuries are “real and convincing, and cannot be explained by normal health, environmental or psychological factors.”
“Pulsed electromagnetic energy, particularly in the radiofrequency band, reasonably explains the basic characteristics of the symptoms reported,” he said.
In the new report, experts identified 4 main symptoms of the syndrome: pressure in one ear or one side of the head; Semi-simultaneous symptoms such as dizziness, loss of balance and ear pain, in addition to the feeling that the phenomenon is localized or coming from a certain direction.
The experts found that “the combination of the four symptoms is clearly unusual and has not been previously reported in the medical literature.”