Developing | More Americans flee US consulate in China as mysterious sonic sickness linked to Cuba illness spreads
A US worker and his family were evacuated from the Guangzhou consulate after they had symptoms like those that left 24 people in Cuba with ‘brain injuries’
More US citizens have been evacuated from a US consulate in Guangzhou, China, after suffering what appears to be the same strange, sound-related illness that befell Cuba consulate workers in 2016, it emerged on Wednesday.
Consulate worker Mark Lenzi and his wife heard strange noises over the course of several months before falling ill with what they described as neurological symptoms, The New York Times reported.
On Wednesday night they were flown to the US with their children, including a three-year-old boy who was also affected.
Speaking to The Washington Post that same day, Lenzi described the sound as being like “marbles bouncing and hitting a floor then rolling on an incline with a static sound”.
US diplomat in China shows symptoms of ‘mild’ brain injury similar to Cuban illness
They asked their neighbour if he was responsible, but he denied it. Months later, the couple began to develop excruciating headaches and suffer sleep deprivation – as did their son. Consulate doctors prescribed painkillers and sleeping tablets, they said.