HAVANA SYNDROME

HAVANA SYNDROME

WHY IN NEWS ?

• Recently, Central govt has told the Karnataka High Court that it will look into the matter of ‘Havana Syndrome’ in India, in response to a Bengaluru resident’s recent petition.

ABOUT HAVANA SYNDROME :

• Havana Syndrome refers to a set of mental health symptoms that are said to be experienced by United States intelligence and embassy officials in various countries.
• It is worth noting that in general, the word ‘syndrome’ simply means a set of symptoms.
• It does not mean a unique medical condition, but rather a set of symptoms that are usually experienced together whose origins may be difficult to confirm.
• The Havana Syndrome typically involves symptoms such as hearing certain sounds without any outside noise, nausea, vertigo and headaches, memory loss and balance issues.
• As the name suggests, it traces its roots to Cuba in late 2016.
• This was about a year after the US opened its embassy in the capital city of Havana after ties between the two countries were normalised in 2015.

• Some US intelligence officials and members of the staff at the embassy began experiencing sudden bursts of pressure in their brains followed by persistent headaches, feelings of disorientation and insomnia.

CAUSES OF HAVANA SYNDROME:

• The causes are not entirely sure.
• Initially during the Cuban experience, being in a country that had been hostile to the US for over five decades, the suspicion was on Cuban intelligence or a section within the Cuban establishment that did not want US-Cuba relations to normalise. It was then speculated to be a “sonic attack”.
• However, further study by scientists in the US and medical examination of the victims began to suggest that they may have been subjected to high-powered microwaves that either damaged or interfered with the nervous system.
• It was said to have built pressure inside the brain that generated the feeling of a sound being heard.
• Greater exposure to high-powered microwaves is said not only to interfere with the body’s sense of balance but also to impact memory and cause permanent brain damage.
• Low levels of microwaves are also emitted from mobile phones but they are not targeted.
• It was suspected that beams of high-powered microwaves were sent through a special gadget that Americans then called a “microwave weapon”.
• The use of microwaves as a counter-intelligence tactic has been experimented with since the Cold War and both Russia and the US have made attempts to weaponise it.
• There have been reports of US embassy officials in Moscow experiencing mental health issues due to the suspected use of microwaves in the 1970s.

HAVANA SYNDROME IN INDIA:

• As of July 2023, the 2021 incident was the only reported occurrence of the syndrome in India.
• Sources in the Indian security establishment said in 2021 that they were not aware of any weapon with such capacities being in the possession of an Indian agency.
• Even if there was one, it was unlikely the government would admit to having acquired such counter-espionage technology given the sensitive nature of intelligence work.

SYLLABUS: PRELIMS, CURRENT AFFAIRS