By Matt Agorist Beijing, China — The US State Department issued a health alert to US citizens in China on Wednesday after an American embassy…
By Matt Agorist
Beijing, China — The US State Department issued a health alert to US citizens in China on Wednesday after an American embassy employee suffered a traumatic brain injury. According to the State Department, the injury was due to a “abnormal sensations of sound and pressure.”
The incident is ominously reminiscent of a series of similar attacks in Havana, Cuba that left 21 State Department employees with serious injuries. Now, after urging Americans not to visit Cuba, the government is similarly warning US citizens to be on the alert in China.
The State Department reports:
A U. S. government employee in China recently reported subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure. The U. S. government is taking these reports seriously and has informed its official staff in China of this event. We do not currently know what caused the reported symptoms and we are not aware of any similar situations in China, either inside or outside of the diplomatic community.
The incident comes as the new Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is preparing to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Washington on Wednesday to discuss trade.
As NBC reports, Jinnie Lee, a spokeswoman for the U. S. Embassy in Beijing said the employee reported the symptoms from late 2017 through last month and was eventually taken to the U. S. for further evaluation.
“On May 18, the embassy learned that the clinical findings of this evaluation matched mild traumatic brain injury,” she said.
