A George Washington University graduate student has died from meningococcal meningitis, the university announced.

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Students and faculty received emails from the university yesterday telling them a student had meningitis. Today they learned the worst.

GWU has contacted 35 students and faculty who may have been exposed, telling them to get checked.

Meningitis can be spread by contact from kissing, coughing, sneezing, and sharing a drinking glass.

The university won't talk about the student, but provided a specialist to talk about the disease.

"That disease is every parent's nightmare, where the child dies very very rapidly," says Dr. Gary Simon. "Every kid is vaccinated, but we are unable to produce a vaccine that will cover all the strains and so we do everything we can. But it's a very frightening disease."