Why get vaccinated?
Hepatitis A vaccine can prevent hepatitis A.
Hepatitis A is a serious liver disease. It is usually spread through close, personal contact with an infected person or when a person unknowingly ingests the virus from objects, food, or drinks that are contaminated by small amounts of stool (poop) from an infected person.
Most adults with hepatitis A have symptoms, including fatigue, low appetite, stomach pain, nausea, and jaundice (yellow skin or eyes, dark urine, light-colored bowel movements). Most children less than 6 years of age do not have symptoms.
A person infected with hepatitis A can transmit the disease to other people even if he or she does not have any symptoms of the disease.
Most people who get hepatitis A feel sick for several weeks, but they usually recover completely and do not have lasting liver damage. In rare cases, hepatitis A can cause liver failure and death; this is more common in people older than 50 years and in people with other liver diseases.
Hepatitis A vaccine has made this disease much less common in the United States. However, outbreaks of hepatitis A among unvaccinated people still happen.
