What is hepatitis A?
Hepatitis A is a highly contagious liver infection caused by the hepatitis A virus. The virus is one of several types of hepatitis viruses that cause liver inflammation and affect your liver's ability to function.
You're most likely to get hepatitis A from contaminated food or water or from close contact with a person or object that's infected. Mild cases of hepatitis A don't require treatment. Most people who are infected recover completely with no permanent liver damage.
Practicing good hygiene, including washing hands frequently, can prevent the spread of the virus. The hepatitis A vaccine can protect against hepatitis A.
Hepatitis A symptoms can include:
- Unusual tiredness and weakness
- Sudden nausea and vomiting and diarrhea
- Abdominal pain or discomfort, especially on the upper right side beneath your lower ribs, which is over your liver
- Clay- or gray-colored stool
- Loss of appetite
- Low-grade fever
- Dark urine
- Joint pain
- Yellowing of the skin and the whites of your eyes (jaundice)
- Intense itching
Complications
Unlike other types of viral hepatitis, hepatitis A does not cause long-term liver damage, and it doesn't become an ongoing (chronic) infection.
In rare cases, hepatitis A can cause a sudden (acute) loss of liver function, especially in older adults or people with chronic liver diseases. Acute liver failure requires a stay in the hospital for monitoring and treatment. Some people with acute liver failure may need a liver transplant.
Source:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hepatitis-a/symptoms-
causes/syc-20367007
