(VOVWORLD) - US and Cuban officials met at 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 staff at the Havana mission and a chill in relations between the two countries.
 The US embassy in Havana in August 2015. (Desmond Boylan / Associated Press) |
The officials discussed some of the medical issues that US Embassy personnel have experienced, according to State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert. Nauert, who declined to divulge details of the meeting, said the talks involved medical experts as well as officials from the Cuban government.
At least 26 Americans have been affected by a mysterious illness at the US Embassy in Cuba whose symptoms include hearing loss, tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, vertigo, headaches, and fatigue, a pattern consistent with mild traumatic brain injury, State Department officials said. The illness, which first appeared last year, was initially described as the result of sonic attacks.
Last September, the US pulled 60 percent of its embassy staff out of Cuba and expelled 15 officials working at the Cuban Embassy in the US.