Illustration by Iris Johnson
By Paul Rogers
In 2016, CIA officers in Havana, Cuba, began having unexplained well being points. They reported a persistent piercing sound adopted by signs together with complications, nausea, vertigo, hassle concentrating, and reminiscence loss. Was it a brand new situation? Or was it the newest incidence of the centuries-old phenomenon of mass psychogenic sickness, previously known as mass hysteria?
Since 2016, lots of of incidents of what’s now dubbed “Havana syndrome” have been recorded by U.S. intelligence and International Service personnel in a rising listing of worldwide places, together with Russia and China. As most had been working in hotbeds of espionage, surrounded by conventional U.S adversaries, many within the American authorities and media quickly started to suspect foul play.
Others are skeptical, theorizing that mass psychogenic sickness (MPI) is admittedly behind Havana syndrome. “Mass hysteria is an outbreak of a bodily sickness in a gaggle that seems to have an natural or physiological trigger, however truly stems from psychological causes, typically from nervousness,” says Gary Small, MD, professor of psychiatry at UCLA.
The query is much from settled. However MPI shouldn’t be a brand new phenomenon; examples pop up all through historical past. And whereas the signs, sufferers, and places differ, some tendencies maintain regular: these diseases are sometimes born of stress, they usually unfold like wildfire amongst shut social networks. No two “epidemics” are precisely alike, however historical past could shed some gentle on the current murky state of affairs: If Havana syndrome is one other MPI, how does it evaluate to MPIs previously? Can historic situations of mass psychogenic sickness contribute to a greater understanding of this elusive medical enigma?
MPI has been acknowledged for the reason that Center Ages. Dancing mania was first reported in Seventh-century Europe and reappeared throughout that continent till the seventeenth century, comprising large crowds dancing erratically for typically days at a time. A notable 1518 outbreak started with the feverish cavorting of a lone lady within the streets of Strasbourg in modern-day France. Theories as to why teams of as much as 400 individuals adopted swimsuit embrace stress-induced psychosis ensuing from widespread illness and famine within the area.
The notorious Salem, MA, witch trials of 1692-1693 had been a response to quite a few women having outlandish, inexplicable matches. The reason for these convulsions and their interpretation as proof of witchcraft are nonetheless debated. However collective pressure ensuing from latest epidemics and posttraumatic stress dysfunction from the continued King William’s Warfare, from which most of the affected women had been refugees, have been cited as elements.
“You are inclined to see patterns,” says Small. “Folks affected typically are in remoted conditions. There’s some sort of stress that the group is experiencing with none technique of resolving it.”
The 1962 Tanganyika laughter epidemic started at a mission-run women’ boarding faculty in Kashasha, Tanzania. Beginning with three college students, matches of laughter lasting as much as a number of days unfold all through the varsity, forcing its closure. The epidemic then unfold to a village to which a number of college students had returned.
Small co-authored a research of a 1979 incident at a Boston elementary faculty when, whereas performing in an end-of-year play, an influential boy turned dizzy and fell, bleeding profusely. This triggered psychogenic responses together with dizziness, hyperventilation, and stomach ache in one-third of the coed physique.
“There are a variety of psychological stressors amongst these youngsters, not to mention simply the efficiency nervousness they’re experiencing,” says Small, whose findings instructed a relationship between childhood loss, resembling parental divorce or household dying, and susceptibility to MPI.
In 1983, an outbreak of mass fainting and nausea affected 943 Palestinian women and some feminine Israeli troopers within the occupied West Financial institution. Israel and Palestine traded allegations of chemical warfare, however in the end a neighborhood well being official concluded that whereas the primary 20% of circumstances had been in all probability attributable to an unidentified fuel, the rest had been basically psychosomatic, in keeping with Time journal.
A UCLA investigation of a 1989 incident by which 247 scholar performers, most of them feminine, turned violently ailing at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium equally famous that youngsters who noticed a good friend turn out to be sick had been the almost definitely to develop signs, which had been thus transmitted via social networks.
Lots of of women at a boarding faculty close to Mexico Metropolis skilled unexplained leg ache, nausea, and fever throughout 2006-2007. It was a closed neighborhood, with college students denied entry to tv or radio. The ensuing nearly familial bonds between them could have contributed to what psychiatrist Nashyiela Loa Zavala, who investigated the case, has termed the “audiovisual contagion” of MPI.
Commonalities exist between no less than some Havana syndrome circumstances and historic MPI outbreaks. MPI normally begins amongst a small, cohesive group of individuals of upper standing, in a demanding state of affairs, after which spreads.
“The involvement of 4 [CIA agents] from the identical station is a defining characteristic of mass psychogenic sickness, which is understood to observe social networks,” says New Zealand-based medical sociologist Robert Bartholomew, PhD.
Most Havana syndrome circumstances are personnel remoted removed from dwelling in abroad embassies, not in contrast to the boarding college students concerned in lots of MPI outbreaks. They’re bonded by a demanding work surroundings, below fixed surveillance, and sure cognizant of Russia’s alleged prior use of microwave transmissions to disrupt U.S. intelligence. But for causes of nationwide safety, they’re sometimes unable to share associated anxieties with household or “civilian” mates.
Some signs beforehand attributed to MPI, together with headache, dizziness, and nausea, have been related to Havana syndrome. Bartholomew instructed that “reframing” of those widespread complaints by these affected, to mirror what medical doctors and authorities authorities are telling them, might contribute to the phenomenon. In different phrases, individuals could be experiencing generic signs widespread in MPI and be inclined to sinister explanations — with none proof for them.
Havana syndrome outbreaks are separated by typically hundreds of miles, which ostensibly eliminates audiovisual contagion. However the web has redefined the idea of “neighborhood” to now transcend geographical proximity. Social media and on-line information undoubtedly made U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers effectively conscious of graphic descriptions of Havana syndrome signs from friends around the globe, a few of whom can be personally identified to them from prior postings.
Nevertheless, Havana syndrome doesn’t meet all widespread MPI standards. Small famous “a preponderance of signs [of MPI] in women or girls in contrast with boys or males.” Certainly, MPI disproportionately impacts younger women greater than every other demographic. But the vast majority of Havana syndrome circumstances have been middle-aged males.
There isn’t a consensus on the reason for Havana syndrome. Theories vary from the mating name of crickets to a sonic weapon. Some specialists preserve that early circumstances of Havana syndrome current unambiguous proof of neurological harm in step with publicity to microwave radiation. But they continue to be open to contributing psychosocial elements in no less than some situations.
“We discovered [microwave radiation] to be most believable in explaining a subset of the circumstances, not all circumstances,” says David Relman, MD, a Stanford College microbiologist who headed the Nationwide Academy of Sciences research of Havana syndrome. Relman stated that this subset comprised employees of the American embassy in Cuba and on the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou, China, which was the second location to report signs.
James Giordano, PhD, professor of neurology at Georgetown College and advisor to the Pentagon, stated that the unique circumstances on the Havana embassy “had goal options — clinically relatable, objectifiable, and legitimate and evidentiary indicators — that had been indicative of some type of neurological trauma or insult.” However he famous that solely a fraction of the worldwide incidents so far have been verified as assembly the total, goal medical standards for the kind of anomalous well being incident referred to as Havana syndrome.
After 5 years, lots of of circumstances on a number of continents, and steady, inconclusive investigation, there could by no means be a definitive reply as to if Havana syndrome is bodily or psychogenic. However historical past could convey extra readability than Chilly-Warfare-era spycraft. Havana syndrome has some main variations from MPI epidemics of the previous, however in some ways it’s extra comparable than not — and paranoia within the American intelligence neighborhood would hardly be unprecedented.
Paul Rogers is a British-born journalist based mostly in Los Angeles. A graduate of the College of African and Asian Research on the College of Sussex, his work has appeared within the Los Angeles Instances, Nationwide Geographic Traveler, LA Weekly, and plenty of others.