What might this disease be? (just want possibilities, not diagnosis)

Ok, here’s the deal.
Lots of viruses cause rashes and sore throats, not all rashes are pathognomonic of a particular virus.

So the health centre presumably outruled:
Measles (unlikely with MMR, rash preceded by 2 or 3 days of runny nose, rash starts behind ears and moves down body)
Rubella (unlikely if MMR vaccine, not usually associated with systemic illness and high fever)
Scarlet fever (which is caused by a bacterium, and would cause a “sandpaper” like rash and pus on her tonsils)
Chickenpox (characteristic rash, it looks like little blisters)
Bacterial meningitis (she’d be much sicker and have some signs of raised intracranial pressure).

The diagnosis is “a viral upper respiratory tract infection with exanthem”. Unless they want to do complicated tests for viral DNA, they won’t find which one it was.

Since all viruses (except Herpes viruses and HIV) are treated with rest, fluids, anti-pyretics and analgaesia, there is no reason to diagnose the exact virus responsible, as it wouldn’t affect management. Those DNA tests are expensive, time consuming, and in this case pointless.

If the rash looks like tiny bruises and doesn’t blanch when a glass tumbler is rolled over it, it’s a purpuric rash and is suggestive of meningitis or Henoch-Schonlein Purpura (a kind of vasculitis…it’s very rare). If it’s not, it’s just an ordinary viral maculopapular rash.

The only thing I would say is that this could be Epstein-Barr (infectious mononucleosis, “mono”), in which case they should have taken blood for a test to look for abnormal white cells or antibodies to EBV. EBV can have some nasty complications, such as absesses of the tonsils and hepatitis, so she should return to the clinic if her symptoms get worse, or she gets some new symtpoms that don’t fit with the idea of a bad cold. Amoxicillin (a type of antibiotic) can cause a drug-induced rash in people with EBV, so if she has taken an antibiotic in the last couple of days that could be the cause of the rash.

Just give her Tylenol (or generic acetominophen) every 4 hours, keep her cool, make sure she’s drinking lots of fluids and try to get her to eat something (chicken soup, toast, icecream, whatever she feels like).

Shingles?

One of my friend’s contracted Mononucleosis and exhibited those very symptoms in the beginning of it. Please tell me she is going to get a second opinion on her condition?

Her voice sounds like a frog and she’s getting spots.

Are you sure she hasn’t kissed a toad looking for a prince and gotten warts instead?

I’ve always wanted to join in the chorus of uninvolved people mostly without medical training trying to diagnose a malady over the internet, and no one’s beaten me to this contribution yet:

Pityriasis rosea! If I had to suffer through that rash for weeks in college, damnit, I’ll take a perverse glee when I find someone else who experiences it.

I went to my college clinic several times over the course of my four years there and never once saw a doctor on the premises. Instead, I always got the same nurse practitioner who, incidentally, was rumored to be a pothead who “creeped out” the student body.

Not being ridiculous; just being cautious.

I don’t know what to add, except that if her fever rises she needs to be seen again. If she didn’t see a doc the first time, she needs to see one the second.

I damn near died from Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever when I was a kid, so I’m skittish about rash-plus-fever type symptoms. Note: Her symptoms do NOT sound like RMSF (she’d have a crashing headache and a steadily rising fever), but the doc I saw then was adamant about something: High fever + unexplained rash = hospitalization, period.