Mysterious health attacks and symptoms spur more evacuations from China
Enlarge / Consulate General of the United States in Guangzhou. (credit: WKDx417)
More US diplomats, employees, and their families in China are being medically evaluated and evacuated amid growing accounts of mysterious episodes involving sound and pressure that appear linked to the development of mild traumatic brain injuries, according to reports by The New York Times.
Last month, the State Department revealed that one US employee at the US consulate in the city of Guangzhou, just northwest of Hong Kong, reported experiencing "subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure" and sustained a mild traumatic brain injury despite no evidence of a blow to the head. The episode drew eerie parallels to the mysterious "health attacks" experienced by diplomats at the US embassy in Cuba, which left 24 Americans with similar brain injuries.
That unidentified employee in Guangzhou was evacuated and sent for more medical testing in the US. The State Department, meanwhile, issued a health alert on May 23 for those remaining in China. Though the department suggested vigilance, it added that it was "not aware of any similar situations in China, either inside or outside of the diplomatic community," suggesting that the episode may have been an isolated event so far.
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