WASHINGTON (AP) — Doctors treating the U.S. embassy victims of
suspected attacks in Cuba have discovered brain abnormalities as they
search for clues to explain hearing, vision, balance and memory damage,
The Associated Press has learned.
It's the most specific finding to date about physical
damage, showing that whatever it was that harmed the Americans, it led
to perceptible changes in their brains. The finding is also one of
several factors fueling growing skepticism that some kind of sonic
weapon was involved.
Medical testing has revealed the embassy workers
developed changes to the white matter tracts that let different parts of
the brain communicate, several U.S. officials said, describing a
growing consensus held by university and government physicians
researching the attacks. White matter acts like information highways
between brain cells.
Loud, mysterious sounds followed by hearing loss and
ear-ringing had led investigators to suspect "sonic attacks." But
officials are now carefully avoiding that term. The sounds may have been
the byproduct of something else that caused damage, said three U.S.
officials briefed on the investigation. They weren't authorized to
discuss it publicly and demanded anonymity.
Physicians, FBI investigators and U.S. intelligence
agencies have spent months trying to piece together the puzzle in Havana
, where the U.S. says 24 U.S. government officials and spouses fell ill
starting last year in homes and later in some hotels. Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday he's "convinced these were targeted
attacks ," but the U.S. doesn't know who's behind them. A few Canadian
Embassy staffers also got sick.
Doctors still don't know how victims ended up with
the white matter changes, nor how exactly those changes might relate to
their symptoms. U.S. officials wouldn't say whether the changes were
found in all 24 patients.
But acoustic waves have never been shown to alter the
brain's white matter tracts, said Elisa Konofagou, a biomedical
engineering professor at Columbia University who is not involved in the
government's investigation.
"I would be very surprised," Konofagou said, adding
that ultrasound in the brain is used frequently in modern medicine. "We
never see white matter tract problems."
Cuba has adamantly denied involvement, and calls the
Trump administration's claims that U.S. workers were attacked
"deliberate lies ." The new medical details may help the U.S. counter
Havana's complaint that Washington hasn't presented any evidence.
Tillerson said the U.S. had shared some
information with Havana, but wouldn't disclose details that would
violate privacy or help a perpetrator learn how effective the attacks
were.
"What we've said to the Cubans is: Small
island. You've got a sophisticated intelligence apparatus. You probably
know who's doing it. You can stop it," Tillerson said. "It's as simple
as that."
The case has plunged the U.S. medical
community into uncharted territory. Physicians are treating the symptoms
like a new, never-seen-before illness. After extensive testing and
trial therapies, they're developing the first protocols to screen cases
and identify the best treatments — even as the FBI investigation
struggles to identify a culprit, method and motive.
Doctors treating the victims wouldn't speak
to the AP, yet their findings are expected to be discussed in an article
being submitted to the Journal of the American Medical Association,
U.S. officials said. Physicians at the University of Miami and the
University of Pennsylvania who have treated the Cuba victims are writing
it, with input from the State Department's medical unit and other
government doctors.
But the article won't speculate about what
technology might have harmed the workers or who would have wanted to
target Americans in Cuba. If investigators are any closer to solving
those questions, their findings won't be made public.
The AP first reported in August that U.S.
workers reported sounds audible in parts of rooms but inaudible just a
few feet away — unlike normal sound, which disperses in all directions.
Doctors have now come up with a term for such incidents: "directional
acoustic phenomena."
Most patients have fully recovered, some
after rehabilitation and other treatment, officials said. Many are back
at work. About one-quarter had symptoms that persisted for long periods
or remain to this day.
Earlier this year, the U.S. said doctors
found patients had suffered concussions, known as mild traumatic brain
injury, but were uncertain beyond that what had happened in their
brains. Concussions are often diagnosed based solely on symptoms.
Studies have found both concussions and white
matter damage in Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who survived
explosions yet had no other physical damage. But those injuries were
attributed mostly to shock waves from explosions. No Havana patients
reported explosions or blows to the head.
Outside medical experts said that when the sample of patients is so small, it's difficult to establish cause and effect.
"The thing you have to wonder anytime you see
something on a scan: Is it due to the episode in question, or was it
something pre-existing and unrelated to what happened?" said Dr. Gerard
Gianoli, an ear and brain specialist in Louisiana.
As Cuba works to limit damage to its
reputation and economy, its government has produced TV specials and an
online summit about its own investigation. Cuba's experts have concluded
that the Americans' allegations are scientifically impossible.
The Cubans have urged the U.S. to release
information about what it's found. FBI investigators have spent months
comparing cases to pinpoint what factors overlap.
U.S. officials told the AP that investigators have now determined:
— The most frequently reported sound patients
heard was a high-pitched chirp or grating metal. Fewer recalled a
low-pitched noise, like a hum.
— Some were asleep and awakened by the sound, even as others sleeping in the same bed or room heard nothing.
— Vibrations sometimes accompanied the sound.
Victims told investigators these felt similar to the rapid flutter of
air when windows of a car are partially rolled down.
— Those worst off knew right away something
was affecting their bodies. Some developed visual symptoms within 24
hours, including trouble focusing on a computer screen.
The U.S. has not identified any specific
precautions it believes can mitigate the risk for diplomats in Havana,
three officials said, although an attack hasn't been reported since late
August. Since the Americans started falling ill last year, the State
Department has adopted a new protocol for workers before they go to Cuba
that includes bloodwork and other "baseline" tests. If they later show
symptoms, doctors can retest and compare.
Doctors
still don't know the long-term medical consequences and expect that
epidemiologists, who track disease patterns in populations, will monitor
the 24 Americans for life. Consultations with the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention are underway
No comments:
Post a Comment