Spinning Plague

The Spinning Plague, also known as "The Spins", is an illness that became known to Cymbar around 200 years ago. First found in Fin-Allan in 318, the disease introduced itself with the First Spinning Plague that ravaged Fin-Allan before spreading further afield. Though cases were thankfully mostly isolated outside Cymbar, the disease has recurred in Fin-Allan and elsewhere in Cymbar, though never with the intensity of the original outbreak.
The cause of The Spinning Plague is not well understood. A specific carrier has never been isolated, and no cure has been found. The Exodite Hospitallers have pioneered physical therapies to help the afflicted recover, but once someone catches it, the best anyone can do is let the disease run its course and hope. The disease appears infectious from person to person, and so plague houses are set up to isolate the infected until the disease appears to have passed.

Symptoms

The first sign of the spins is an intense headache that plagues the afflicted intermittently for a few days before the disease progresses. Then, the afflicted will begin to lose their coordination and control over their own movements, characteristically beginning to "spin". This phase is coupled with fever, intense nausea, further headaches, and the onset of deafness in one or both ears. The afflicted will tend to fall down whenever they attempt to walk, and immediately lose their orientation. The major symptoms usually subside in a week or two, as the headache and intense nausea subside. In a minority of cases, the disease is fatal as the afflicted suffers from even higher fever until it eventually takes their life.

Prognosis

Most who contract The Spins survive, but find their lives permanently altered. The recovered often suffer from persistent tinnitus and deafness in one or both ears, and furthermore must learn to walk again. Typically, even after one recovers from The Spins they never entirely regain their sense of balance, will continue to suffer from headaches more often than before, and often have to walk with a cane. Someone who has contracted and survived The Spins can often be identified by their slightly erratic walk.