Symptoms: loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, upper abdominal pain, jaundice (yellowed skin and whites of eyes, dark amber urine, and light-colored stools), fever, headache, general discomfort

Home care:

Isolate the child, and then call the doctor.

When a diagnosis has been made the doctor will order a home care program that includes rest, liquids, and a low-fat diet.

Precautions

-    Hepatitis must be diagnosed and treated by a doctor.

-    A child and other family members who have been exposed to hepatitis should be given preventive gamma globulin or hepatitis  immune globulin injections as soon as possible after exposure.

-    Hepatitis  is contagious; isolate the child and practice good health habits to limit spread of the disease.

-    Hepatitis A can be contracted from contaminated water or food, such as shellfish.

-    A pregnant woman can pass hepatitis  to her unborn baby.

Hepatitis is an infection of the liver. Only recently have two viruses that cause hepatitis been identified. Hepatitis A virus causes infectious hepatitis. Hepatitis  virus causes serum hepatitis. Another form of hepatitis can occur as a complication of infectious mononucleosis. Serious, acute complications and long-term progressive (continually worsening) liver disease may occur as a result of hepatitis.

Hepatitis A is contracted from the stools or blood of a person with the disease. The virus is also present in contaminated water and food (for example, shellfish). Symptoms may appear within 15 to 45 days after being exposed to the virus. The patient is contagious from three weeks before the onset of jaundice until one week after onset.

Hepatitis  is contracted in one of two ways: either by close mouth-to-mouth contact or from the blood of a patient or carrier (someone who carries the virus without having the disease). It is usually transmitted by a blood transfusion or by an injection with a contaminated needle (as in drug addiction and tattooing). It can also be passed by a pregnant woman to her unborn baby. Symptoms may appear six weeks to six months after being exposed to the virus. Hepatitis  is contagious during the incubation period (the time between exposure to the virus and the onset of symptoms), and possibly for months and years. Symptoms are similar to those of hepatitis A, but often come on more gradually and are milder. Arthritis and rashes are common complications.

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