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By Ellie Cook and John Feng
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The mystery of the so-called Havana Syndrome has stumped experts, intelligence officials and lawmakers for close to a decade.
More than 1,000 officials and their family members are thought to have been plagued by memory loss, hearing problems, trouble sleeping and what appears to be brain injury—yet no credible cause has emerged to explain the common set of symptoms originally linked to the U.S. Embassy in the Cuban capital when the ailment first became public nearly 10 years ago.
But, according to a Monday report from CNN, the Pentagon has been testing a device purchased by undercover homeland security operatives that could finally pull back the curtain on the enigma of what the U.S. officially terms "anomalous health incidents."
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What Is Havana Syndrome?
The first cases became public in late 2016, when U.S. government employees and several Canadian diplomats, plus their relatives, experienced similar symptoms after being assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Havana. Cases were then reported across the world, including in the U.S.
Intelligence assessments fed back to the public had not been able to identify what causes the symptoms and who may be to blame.
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A U.S. intelligence report, published in January 2025, said most of the American intelligence community still doubted that a foreign adversary was behind Havana Syndrome. But one U.S. intelligence agency believed there is a "roughly even chance" that a foreign actor had used a "novel weapon or prototype device" to induce the symptoms, according to the unclassified assessment.
One scientific study commissioned by the State Department and published in 2022 said the symptoms appear to be "consistent with the effects of directed, pulsed radio frequency energy."
"Many of the chronic, nonspecific symptoms are also consistent with known radio frequency effects, such as dizziness, headache, fatigue, nausea, anxiety, cognitive deficits, and memory loss," according to the study.
Another intelligence agency judged that there was the same probability a foreign actor had developed such a weapon that could have caused the reported illness.
One of the most common working theories has put Russia at the heart of deploying or experimenting with some form of sonic or directed-energy weapon. Moscow, an ally of Cuba, has repeatedly denied any involvement in inducing the symptoms.
The device acquired by Homeland Security Investigations—part of the Department of Homeland Security—produces pulsed radio waves, one source told CNN. It contains Russian components but is not entirely Russian-made, they added.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry by email for comment.
In November 2021, then-CIA Director William Burns warned Russian intelligence services that there would be "consequences" if they were found to be responsible for Havana Syndrome, The Washington Post reported.
Where Have People Experienced Havana Syndrome?
Symptoms associated with the illness have been reported around the world, but it's hard to work out exactly how many people have been affected and how many suspected cases could be coincidental or ultimately unrelated.
Texas Republican Representative August Pfluger, chairing a congressional hearing in May 2024, pointed to cases in the U.S., China, Vietnam, Germany, Austria, Serbia, Taiwan, Colombia and Australia.
In late 2017, a senior CIA operative reported a suspected case of Havana Syndrome, followed by another incident often described as linked to the illness in Guangzhou, China, the following year. In the years since, suspected cases of Havana Syndrome have been tentatively reported elsewhere, in countries such as Poland and Uzbekistan.
Olivia Troye, a homeland security adviser during President Donald Trump's first administration, told CBS News' 60 Minutes that she had experienced a "piercing feeling" in her head, nausea and disorientation as she walked close to the White House.
A visit by then-Vice President Kamala Harris to Vietnam in 2021 was delayed for several hours by an investigation into two possible cases of Havana Syndrome in Hanoi.
At least two U.S. officials in Germany suffered symptoms linked to Havana Syndrome, the Wall Street Journal reported in August 2021. Weeks later, a CIA officer in India reported illness consist with Havana Syndrome, according to media reports at the time.
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