Signed, Curious Dear Curious, Alice definitely can't diagnose your friend's illness through your letter, but his symptoms do not appear to match mono. It sounds as though he needs a trip to the health service or his family health care provider. The period during which mono is contagious is not completely clear. Most people with mono don't know where or from whom they got it. Symptoms include severe sore throat with a painful swelling of lymph nodes in the neck, lethargy, a fever, and, occasionally, a rash.
Antibiotics have no effect on the disease, which is usually self-limited.
This means that the person will get better without any intervention. Infected people may be troubled by fatigue for weeks, or even for several months. However, mono does not deserve its reputation as a prolonged illness. Most people get better quickly, often within two weeks, and some people have such a mild case that they are hardly sick at all. Pneumonia, on the other hand, is a viral, bacterial, or even fungal infection that causes fever, shortness of breath, a persistent cough, and chest pains.