Hepatitis A is a fairly common and highly contagious virus\nthat infects the liver. It can hit you hard — or you may not know you\u2019ve had\nit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s declined greatly in the United States because of\nimmunization,\u201d says Jason Brackins, Mountain Hope Good Shepherd Clinic\u2019s\nphysician\u2019s assistant. Yet he has seen three or four cases of it so far this\nyear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s spread orally and via fecal material. If someone working with food does not wash his hands after going to the bathroom, the virus can spread via contaminated food. Touching, sexual contact, contaminated water and injectable drugs also spread Hepatitis A. It does not spread through the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Symptoms include sudden nausea, vomiting, fatigue and\nabdominal pain. \u201cIt hits you like a stomach virus,\u201d Jason says. The sneaky\nvirus, however, takes 15 to 50 days before the symptoms appear \u2013 in fact, no\nsymptoms may appear \u2013 but it\u2019s contagious well before the symptoms show. Most\ncases are over in one to two weeks, but fever, jaundice and an enlarged liver\nare indications of more serious cases that may take longer to get over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Humans are the only known carrier. The potential for the Hepatitis A virus to spread is greatest where lots of people spend time close together: in day care centers (think dirty diapers), prisons and the military. Homeless communities also fall victim to it because they lack washing facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A big event, for example where Port-A-Potties are used and\nhand washing isn\u2019t always easy, is another cause for concern, Jason says. And\none food worker who does not wash hands thoroughly and does not wear gloves to\nhandle food can contaminate lots of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can treat the symptoms but not Hepatitis A itself, he says.\u201cYou try to ride it out.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe key to protection is \u2026 hand washing,\u201d he says. Also, immunizations are available. They are recommended for health care workers and for those in the food industry, as well as for family members of Hepatitis A patients and a few other categories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sevier County Health Department has done much to vaccinate against Hepatitis A locally, says Deborah Murph, the Clinic\u2019s executive director. A majority of the 174 people who attended the Clinic\u2019s health fair in June opted to be vaccinated by Health Department staff after learning about Hepatitis A. \u201cWe are grateful the Health Department provided the vaccine during the health fair,\u201d Deborah said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hepatitis A is a fairly common and highly contagious virus that infects the liver. It can hit you hard — or you may not know you\u2019ve had it. \u201cIt\u2019s declined greatly in the United States because of immunization,\u201d says Jason Brackins, Mountain Hope Good Shepherd Clinic\u2019s physician\u2019s assistant. Yet he has seen three or four […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-you-can-use"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}