“…the chance of an infant or child getting either hepatitis A or hepatitis B is close to none or nonexistent.”
-Ronald C. Kennedy, Ph.D. Congressional Reform Hearing August 3, 1999
This is the most common type of hepatitis reported in the United States.67 It is a viral infection, and hepatitis literally means, “swollen or inflamed liver.” The hepatitis A virus (HAV) is transmitted by the fecal-oral route, replicates in the liver and then is excreted into the feces in 10 to 12 days.68
Hepatitis A cannot be distinguished from other types of viral hepatitis.69 A person will generally have a feeling of uneasiness (malaise), abdominal discomfort, loss of appetite, nausea, dark urine, yellowing of the white of the eyes (jaundice), and a fever.70 The CDC states, “Among children under 6 years of age, most (70 percent) infections are asymptomatic”71 and “The case-fatality rate among reported cases of all ages [emphasis added] is approximately 0.3%.”72 This means that even if your child does get HAV, they have over a 99.7 percent survival rate!
