As bad as this virus makes you feel, with high fevers, vomiting, stomach pains, diarrhea, and yellow skin and eyes, you would feel even worse knowing you infected your family. Washing your hands often will help stop the spread of this disease. If you child has tested positive sterilize all the toys and other things they have touched.
A very small percentage of people infected with hepatitis A risk serious complications. These include people with alcoholic hepatitis, chronic hepatitis with cirrhosis or the elderly over 60 years old. These patients may suffer liver failure after becoming infected with hepatitis A. For 22% of the adults who contract Hepatitis A they can be hospitalized. A few people in the higher risk group can even die.
Patients with hepatitis A may show improvement in their symptoms and in their liver function tests only to suffer a relapse, usually after four weeks.
**** There is no specific treatment for hepatitis A. Most patients are told to rest for one to four weeks after a diagnosis is made, to avoid intimate contact and to consume foods high in protein. People who have come into contact with the patient should be given temporary immunization with immune serum globulin (ISE), within two weeks of exposure.
There are two approved vaccines available in the U.S. for protection against hepatitis A. They are made from inactive hepatitis A virus particles.
Children between two and 18 should receive two initial doses of the vaccine and a booster between six and 12 months. Adults should receive an initial dose and then a booster six to 12 months later. It takes at least two weeks before protection is achieved. It is not certain how long protection will last. Experts believe that protection may last 10 years or longer.
The United States has issued a travel advisory, that you should get vaccinated before traveling outside the country.
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