Hepatitis A symptoms last a week or two. Some adults can feel sick for as long as a few months, but this is rare. The virus is most likely to be spread when people do not wash their hands after using the toilet or changing a diaper or soiled sheets, then touch their own mouths, prepare food for others, or touch others with their contaminated hands. This spreads the disease from person to person. The time of highest risk for spreading the virus to others is during the two weeks before symptoms begin.
Most people stop being contagious one week after their symptoms start.
Unlike other hepatitis viruses, hepatitis A virus is usually not spread by blood. People who live with or have sex with people who have the disease are at high risk of catching it. Hepatitis A sometimes spreads among young children in day care because many are in diapers and cannot wash their own hands, and no one knows they have the disease because they have no symptoms. Spreading among school-age children is less common because they are more likely to have symptoms, and most have learned to wash their hands before eating and after using the toilet. A blood test looks for antibodies that fight the virus.