1. Reason

You're most likely to get hepatitis A from food or water contaminated with the virus.
In particular, although the infection is common in underdeveloped countries with poor hygiene conditions, the infection rate has recently been on the rise even among people in their 20s and 30s who grew up in good hygienic conditions.
HAV is usually transmitted through direct contact with an infectious person, and in some cases, can be transmitted to a fetus from an infected mother, or can be caused by the blood transfusion or can be parenterally infected among gays.
The hepatitis A virus is transmitted primarily by the oral route; that is when an uninfected person ingests food or water that has been contaminated with the faeces of an infected person, and a group outbreak is usually associated with sewage-contaminated or inadequately treated water.

2. Symptom

• The incubation period of hepatitis A is usually 30 days. The primary symptoms include fatigue, nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, fever and pain in the right upper abdomen.
• Within a week thereafter, infected persons usually experience characteristics symptoms such as jaundice, black urine, bleached feces, and an itchy body.
• Generally, when jaundice occurs, the previous symptoms disappear, and the jaundice lasts about two weeks.
• Recently, among adults, infection usually causes more severe symptoms.
• For acute hepatitis A, 85% recover clinically and haematologically within three months, and later, unlike hepatitis B or hepatitis C, it does not become chronic and is mostly fully recovered. However, for the elderly or patients with chronic liver diseases such as hepatitis B or hepatitis C, the symptoms can rapidly deteriorate, leading to acute liver failure and serious consequences.

3. Diagnosis

Hepatitis A can be suspected through characteristic clinical patterns in which jaundice occurs within a week after the general symptoms, and can be confirmed through hepatitis A antibody test.

4. Preventive Method

Infection of Hepatitis A can be prevented by vaccines.
Nearly 95% of people develop protective levels of antibodies to the virus by injecting an additional vaccine in 6-12 months or 6-18 months after the first vaccination depending on the type of vaccines.
This works not only for children over the age of two, but also for adults who have not yet been exposed to the virus.
The side effects of the vaccination locally occur in the form of fever or headache and the red reaction around the injected area.

5. Hepatitis A Vaccination

• Subject to vaccination : anyone without hepatitis A antibodies
• Vaccine type : Vaqta Prefilled Inj.- MSD
• Number of injections : 1st - start date of injection / 2nd - 6 -18 months after the 1st injection