Hepatitis A: Symptoms

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Symptoms

Symptoms usually appear 15 to 50 days (2 to 7 weeks) after you have been exposed to the hepatitis A virus (HAV). The average time is 4 weeks. Symptoms usually are mild and may not be noticed in children younger than 6 years of age. In older children and adults, early symptoms are often similar to those of a stomach virus. Possible symptoms include:

• Extreme tiredness (fatigue).
• Fever.
• Sore muscles.
• Headache.
• Pain on the right side of the abdomen, under the rib cage (where the liver is located).
• Nausea.
• Loss of appetite and weight loss.
• Yellowing of the skin and the white part of the eyes (jaundice), sometimes accompanied by dark urine and clay-colored (whitish) stools. Jaundice is less common in children and younger adults.

About 15% of people who have hepatitis A have symptoms of HAV infection that return or last for 6 to 9 months after infection first occurred.¹ The infection is usually not any more severe than it was the first time, but arthritis can occur with it. After the infection goes away, the person usually returns to normal health. In rare cases, cholestatic hepatitis occurs, which can cause itching and can last throughout the infection.

In general, by the time symptoms appear, the amount of virus being shed in your stools is declining. You still may spread the virus, but you are less likely to do so after symptoms appear.

Symptoms of hepatitis A usually last less than 2 months.

Last updated:	September 09, 2008
Author:	Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS
Reviewed By:	Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine, W. Thomas London, MD - Hepatology
Editors:	Susan Van Houten, RN, BSN, MBA, Pat Truman, MATC