Touching a Cat

I would doubt very much that the cat made your friend ill. How could this happen? And so fast. Few diseases pass from cat to human (these are called zoonotic diseases). I think, to be fair and honest, you have made a presumption and added 2+2 to get 5.

Also if your friend picked up this cat it was not wild! Probably a stray domestic cat that was still domesticated as true feral cats run from humans usually.

There is one thing that is more commonly passed from stray cat to human and that is fleas. Fleas will jump of cats onto people and stray cats will have fleas and fleas can and do bite humans. They just cause an itch for a while with a small bump – no more. See Can Fleas Bite Humans

There is a lot of misconceptions about cats and disease. For example, some people say you should get rid of your cat if you are pregnant because of toxoplasmosis. If a person can do that they shouldn’t have a cat – sorry. Toxoplasmosis is caused by a parasite and it can (very rarely and if we are careless) pass from cat’s feces to a person but the person is far more likely to get it from infected meat for example. A large number of people are infected and it lies dormant. But these people were not infected by the cat or an insignificant number were.