INTRODUCTION
Hepatitis A is one of several types of viruses that attack the liver.  Ill persons may experience jaundice of the eyes and skin, pale stools, darkly-colored urine, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, lack of energy, nausea, vomiting and fever. Young children (<5 years of age) may not have any symptoms at all. The severity of the disease varies from mild, with a duration of one to two weeks, to severe, with a convalescent period of several months.  Once infected, only supportive therapy and rest are recommended during convalescence. The disease is rarely fatal and immunity conferred by infection is lifelong.

Hepatitis A is frequently passed from person to person by the fecal-oral route. Hence, it is not surprising that it occurs frequently in children, who may not have mastered the practice of regular hand-washing. In other cases, people can develop the disease by ingestion of raw shellfish, such as oysters, which are harvested from contaminated surface waters. Still in others, infection can occur as a result of certain sexual practices or as a result of intravenous drug use.  Minimizing these high risk exposures can aid in preventing the disease.  Other more direct methods of prevention include two inactivated hepatitis A vaccines which are now available for pre-exposure immunization of persons >2 years of age.

Hepatitis A in Houston
Hepatitis A is one of the most commonly reported infectious diseases in Houston. For the years 1995 through 1999, a total of 1,577 cases were reported to the Bureau of Epidemiology.  The average number of cases received in a year during this period was 295, with 1997 contributing 50 percent more cases to  (go to next page)