There has been a new development in the multi-year international mystery surrounding the Havana syndrome: the USA won and won device testing which officials believe may be related to the debilitating condition.

The sources said the device was quietly acquired by the Department of Homeland Security in late 2024, nearly a decade after staff at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba first reported symptoms of what has become known as Havana syndrome. The Pentagon has since been testing a backpack-sized portable device that emits pulsating radio frequency energy and contains components of Russian origin.

Sources said Homeland Security researchers believe it could reproduce the effects described by victims of Havana syndrome. The Pentagon and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and the CIA declined to comment.

Here’s what you need to know about the mysterious disease.

“My brain is broken”

The term Havana syndrome is derived from cases first reported by American diplomats and intelligence officers in the Cuban capital. After the US embassy opened there in 2015, the media began reporting on strange medical symptoms affecting US embassy staff working in the country: dizziness, fatigue, memory problems and impaired vision. Other symptoms include nausea, migraines, pressure in the head, dizziness, and ringing or ringing in the ears.

Many people with Havana syndrome describe hearing a loud, high-pitched, painful sound that stopped when they moved to another location, with consequences so serious for some they were eventually forced to leave their jobs.

“My brain is broken,” former CIA analyst Erika Stith he told CBS News in 2022.

“We got this as a result of serving our country. And we deserve to be taken care of,” she said.

The US government calls the cases “anomalous health incidents,” or AHI, and officials have not confirmed what caused them.

but “60 minutes” spoke to experts who believe the incidents involve targeted sonic or microwave attacks.

Many of those affected believe they have been wounded by a secret weapon that fires a high-energy beam of microwaves or ultrasound.

Some victims of Havana syndrome have spent more than a decade trying to get attention for their cases, often blaming the government for not providing enough support or access to specialized medical care.

Who is affected?

More than 1,500 US officials have reported having the condition since 2016, including White House staff, CIA officers, FBI agents, military officers and their families. Cases have appeared in dozens of countries and have even been reported in Washington, DC

In 2021, a Havana Syndrome-style incident was reported in Vietnam shortly before then-Vice President Kamala Harris visited Hanoi. The U.S. Embassy said at the time that a “possible abnormal medical incident” required the evacuation of at least one official for medical care, prompting Harris to delay her arrival.

“60 Minutes” later learned that 11 people reported being hit: two officials at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi and nine others who were part of a Defense Department team preparing for Harris’ visit. While Harris was unharmed, some of the injured American personnel were evacuated from Vietnam.

In another case, a State Department security officer working at the US consulate in Guangzhou, China, told “60 Minutes” that he and his wife started having symptoms after hearing bizarre noises in their apartment in 2017.

The security officer, Mark Lenzi, described the sound as a “marble” going down a “metal funnel” and said he heard it four times – always in the same place at the same time of day: above his son’s crib when he was putting him to bed at night. He described the sound as “quite loud” and like nothing he had heard before. He and his wife began to feel ill shortly after hearing the noises.

Lenzi said he believed he was targeted because of his work using top-secret equipment to analyze electronic threats to diplomatic missions.

“This was a targeted attack on my apartment … it was a weapon,” he told correspondent Scott Pelley. “I believe it’s RF, radio frequency energy, in the microwave range.”

Questions about Russia’s possible role

“60 Minutes” reported. in mid-2024 on a major development in the Havana syndrome investigation: a suspected link between the Tbilisi, Georgia attack and a super-secret Russian intelligence unit, as well as evidence that a reliable source called “confirmation” of acoustic weapons testing conducted by the same intelligence unit.

Lt. Col. Greg Edgreen, the retired Army Lt. Col. who led the Pentagon’s investigation into these incidents, told “60 Minutes” at the time that he was convinced Russia was behind the attacks, and that they were part of a worldwide campaign to neutralize American officials.

If my mother had seen what I saw, she would have said, ‘It’s the Russians, stupid,'” Edgreen said.

American estimates

2023 US Intelligence Estimates released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence found it was “highly unlikely” that a foreign adversary was responsible for the diseases—a conclusion reaffirmed in the updated review published a year ago. That review revealed that most of the intelligence community still considered foreign interference highly unlikely.

The two agencies, however, revised their positions, saying there is a “roughly even chance” that a foreign adversary has developed a device capable of harming US officials and their families, while stopping short of directly linking such a device to the reported AHI.

In 2024. House Intelligence Committee concluded in the report that the 2023 assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence “lacked analytical integrity and was highly irregular in its wording.” The report said “it appears increasingly likely that a foreign adversary is behind some of the cases of what officials are calling ‘anomalous health incidents.’

Office of the Director of National Intelligence says he is conducting an audit previous intelligence community investigations into the incidents and “remains committed to sharing the findings” with the American public when they are completed.

Former CIA senior intelligence officer Marc Polymeropoulos said that “a new, full analytical review is now warranted, and the DNI must request it.”

Polymeropoulos, who spoke publicly about the symptoms he suffered after he said he was shot in Moscow in 2017, criticized the agencies for what he said were dishonest previous investigations.

“The CIA has always maintained that none of this technology exists at all, that the device does not exist, and they based their (assessments) on that,” he said, “so their entire analytical assumptions are now blown.”