Student Tweeted 'this is what dying must feel like' before death

A US nursing student suffering from meningitis knew she was near death when she wrote on social media "this is what dying must feel like" days before the disease killed her.

Andrea Jaime, a student at Washington DC's Georgetown University, died on Tuesday of what hospital staff described as "apparent meningitis", the WJLA reports.

While it is unclear how Ms Jaime contracted the disease on Friday she posted on Twitter "This is what dying must feel like" and then responded to a comment on her post saying "105 fever I think I'm dying".

Doctors are also uncertain which of the five types of the disease the student had.

Meningitis inflames the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord but vaccination protects against most forms of the disease, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP).

The group said students living in dorms have a higher risk of contracting the disease because "infectious diseases tend to spread more quickly where larger groups of people gather together", the CDCP said.