What is Havana Syndrome?

• Havana Syndrome refers to a set of mental health symptoms that are said to be experienced by US intelligence and embassy officials in various countries.
  
  
• It typically involves symptoms such as hearing certain sounds without any outside noise being present, nausea, vertigo and headaches, memory loss and issues with balance.
  
  
• As the name suggests, it traces its roots to Cuba. In late 2016, about a year after the US opened its embassy in Havana, some intelligence officials and members of the staff at the embassy began experiencing sudden bursts of pressure in their brain followed by persistent headaches, feeling of disorientation and insomnia.
  
  
• The Havana Syndrome has had a lasting impact on the mental health of some US intelligence officials with at least one officer being compulsorily retired for his inability to coherently discharge his duty and another needing a hearing aid.
  
  
• Victims may have been subjected to high-powered microwaves that either damaged or interfered with the nervous system. It was said to have built a pressure inside the brain that generated the feeling of a sound being heard.