The malady resembles a brain injury that affected U. S. personnel in Cuba.
BEIJING (Reuters) – The State Department on Friday issued an expanded health alert for all of China amid reports some U. S. diplomats based in the country had experienced a mysterious malady that resembles a brain injury and has already affected U. S. personnel in Cuba.
A previous statement in May only mentioned the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou as the location for the health alert, though it was sent to U. S. citizens throughout the country.
The State Department had confirmed earlier that one U. S. employee assigned to the consulate in Guangzhou had “suffered a medical incident,” and that it had deployed a team to screen employees and family members there.
On Wednesday the U. S. government said that it had brought a group of people from that consulate back to the United States for further evaluation of their symptoms, and that it was offering screening to anyone at the U. S. embassy in Beijing or other consulates in China who requested it.
The United States also operates consulates in the mainland Chinese cities of Chengdu, Shanghai, Shenyang and Wuhan.
The location of the health alert was changed to “countrywide” from Guangzhou in the updated statement sent by email.
“The State Department received medical confirmation that a U. S.
