Hepatitis A history and symptoms

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

History and Symptoms

HAV has an incubation period of about 28 days (anywhere from 15 to 50 is usual). Some patients, often young children, have no symptoms. 70% of children younger than 6 who have HAV have no symptoms. Old patients are usually symptomatic. The symptoms of HAV are:

• Fever
• Fatigue
• Loss of appetite
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Abdominal pain
• Dark urine
• Clay-colored bowel movements
• Joint pain
• Jaundice. Younger children (<6 yrs) typically do not get Jaundiced, while older patients often (>70%) do.

Symptoms typically last less than 2 months, but 10%-15% of patients still have symptoms or have relapses up to 6 months after the onset of symptoms. Unlike other instances of Hepatitis (such as Hepatitis C), HAV is always acute.