US diplomats at the country consulate in Guangzhou China were reported to have been affected by a mysterious illness
WASHINGTON, U. S. – After U. S. diplomats at the country’s consulate in Guangzhou, China were reported to have been affected by a mysterious illness, the U. S. State Department is said to have ordered multiple employees working them to return home.
According to officials, screenings of a number of individuals working at the U. S. Consulate in Guangzhou showed that they may have been affected by mysterious health problems similar to what diplomats experienced in Cuba.
Results of the screening are said to have caused alarm in Washington, leading the State Department to order the evacuation of “a number of individuals” from the consulate.
The agency said two weeks back that one U. S. employee in Guangzhou experienced « vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure, » similar to the unexplained incidents that sickened U. S. staffers in Cuba.
The incidents were dubbed as « sonic attacks.”
After officially opening in 1979, the U. S. Consulate in Guangzhou was moved to its current location in 2013.
According to the State Department, it is one of the five consulates the U. S. operates in China, along with its main embassy in Beijing.
Later on Wednesday, the U. S. State Department said that it sent a medical team to Guangzhou to screen any employees or family members who requested a test.
In an official statement, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said the employees were sent to the U. S. for a « further evaluation and a comprehensive assessment of their symptoms and findings. »
However, Nauert said that the agency has cited medical privacy concerns for not specifying the exact number of people evacuated from Guangzhou.
Earlier this week, after reports confirmed the mysterious illness gripping U. S. diplomats in China, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the formation of a task force to respond to the « unexplained health incidents. »
Pompeo said on Tuesday that as of now, 24 government employees or family members who worked in Cuba had confirmed symptoms « similar to those noted following a concussion or minor traumatic brain injury. »
He confirmed that on May 16, the Guangzhou employee was found to have similar symptoms.
On Thursday, responding to growing U. S. concerns, the government in China said in a statement that it investigated and could not find anything to cause the described symptoms.
China’s foreign ministry said that it takes its obligation to protect foreign diplomats seriously and is open to conducting further investigations if requested by the U. S.
According to reports, those staff members that were evacuated from Guangzhou are now being sent to the University of Pennsylvania for testing.
Doctors from the same University have previously tested former employees stationed in Havana.
In late 2016, the symptoms first appeared amongst U. S. diplomats in Havana, and it was revealed at the time that the symptoms include « dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, fatigue, cognitive issues, visual problems, ear complaints and hearing loss, and difficulty sleeping. »
In March this year, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that a study of 21 former Havana staffers found « most experienced persistent cognitive, balance, hearing, oculomotor dysfunction, or all 4, as well as sleep impairment and headaches. »
Randel Swanson, one of the authors of the study reportedly described the symptoms as being « like a concussion without a concussion. »
Yet, despite several months passing, the U. S. government has said that it still doesn’t know the cause of these symptoms.
Meanwhile, earlier this year, ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization reported on the frustrations of U. S. government officials investigating the mysterious illnesses in Cuba.
The report stated in February, « After nearly a year of investigation that has drawn on intelligence, defense and technology expertise from across the U. S. government, the FBI has been unable to determine who might have attacked the diplomats or how. Nor has the bureau ruled out the possibility that at least some of the Americans weren’t attacked at all.”
It further noted, “Officials who have been briefed on the inquiry described it as having made strikingly little progress in answering the basic questions of the case, with frustrated FBI agents reporting that they are running out of rocks to overturn. »
In September last year, the U. S. first pulled out all non-essential staff from Cuba.
Soon after, it expelled 15 Cuban diplomats from their U. S. post.
With the issue leading to increasing diplomatic rift between the two countries, Cuba maintains that it had no involvement in the sonic attacks.
