The virus can be carried on an infected person's hands and spread by direct contact or by consuming food or drink the infected individual handled. Hepatitis A also can be acquired through oral-anal sex or by consuming water or raw shellfish contaminated by sewage. Symptoms include fatigue, mild fever, flu-like illness, nausea and vomiting, stomachache and loss of appetite.
Diagnosis is made through a blood test.
These figures place Texas in the intermediate rate of hepatitis A in the United States. Children are among those at greatest risk of infection with one-third of all reported cases in 1996 occurring in children under age 10. Treatment, says Brender, is mainly rest, a low-fat diet and plenty of liquids. Healthy people rarely die from hepatitis A, and most people recover in a few weeks. People who already have a chronic liver disease when they get hepatitis A are at higher risk of developing very severe, possibly fatal, illness.