The Center for Acute Disease Epidemiology (CADE)

Symptoms of hepatitis A usually do not appear until you have had the virus for about a month. Adults are more likely to develop severe symptoms than children and infected children under the three years of age often do not become ill. Initial symptoms can range from mild to severe and may include the following:

• Abrupt onset of fever
• Malaise
• Poor appetite
• Nausea
• Stomach and abdominal pain

After a few days, these symptoms are typically followed by dark (“tea-colored”) urine and jaundice (a yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes). The disease is rarely fatal and most people recover with no complications within one to two weeks, although they may continue to feel tired for a few more weeks.

Infected individuals can spread the virus for one to two weeks before showing any symptoms and for one week after jaundice occurs. Children and infants may occasionally be contagious for longer periods of time.

Hepatitis A is caused by the hepatitis A virus and is highly contagious. The virus is found in the feces of infected people and can be spread in several ways:

• When a person with the virus handles food you eat without washing their hands after using the toilet
• Drinking contaminated water
• Being in close contact with an infected person (even if that person does not seem sick)
• Having sex with an infected person
• Eating raw shellfish from water polluted with raw sewage

Anyone can become infected with hepatitis A but some people are at an increased risk of contracting the disease. Those people include the following:

• People who live in or travel to areas where hepatitis A is common (certain U.S. western states, Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Western Pacific)
• Intimate and household contacts of infected individuals
• Men who have sex with men
• Illegal drug users (injection and non-injection users)

Once a person is ill from hepatitis A, there are no special medications available to cure

the disease. Bed rest is typically all that is needed. Because this disease affects the liver, infected persons should avoid drinking alcohol and should contact their health care provider before taking drugs or medicines (such as aspirin or Tylenol) since certain drugs must be broken down by the liver. Anyone who suspects they may be infected with this disease should contact their health care provider.