text: Viral meningitis epidemic kills 10 in Romania . BUCHAREST 1996-08-29 Viral meningitis has killed 10 people in Romania 's capital Bucharest this month in what doctors said on Thursday was the worst epidemic of its type in the country for a decade . Some 170 middle-aged and elderly people with the disease were being treated in hospital , doctors said . Doctor Emanuil Ceausu , head of Bucharest 's Victor Babes hospital for infectious diseases , said the epidemic had been caused by a virus yet to be identified . Illness from viral meningitis lasts around a week . It affects the gastro-intestinal tract , causing high fever , headache and vomiting . In 1986 Romania suffered an epidemic of the more dangerous bacterial meningitis which has killed some 15,000 people in central Africa this year .