Hepatitis A
Epidemiology of hepatitis A in Ireland
Hepatitis A infection is an acute disease of the liver caused by the hepatitis A virus. The virus is spread from person to person by the faecal-oral route (that is, ingestion of something that has been contaminated with the faeces of an infected person). The virus is shed in the faeces of infected people, and household or sexual contacts of cases may become infected. Symptoms include fever, loss of appetite, nausea, abdominal pain and jaundice. Some people experience a fairly mild illness and recover within a couple of weeks. Other people develop more severe symptoms and may take months to fully recover. Older people are more likely to have more severe symptoms and some infected children do not have any symptoms at all. Hepatitis A became notifiable in 1981.
Number of hepatitis A notifications and notification rate per 100,000 population, 2004-2022
Last updated: 7 June 2023