Hepatitis A: Viral Hepatitis

Hepatitis A is a viral infection that is always acute and never becomes chronic. The virus is excreted in feces and transmitted by contaminated food and water. 

Eating shellfish taken from sewage-contaminated water is a common means of contracting hepatitis A. It can also be acquired by close contact with individuals infected with the virus. 

The most widespread hepatitis A outbreak in the 2003 United States hepatitis outbreak afflicted at least 640 people (killing four) in north-eastern Ohio and south-western Pennsylvania. 

In 1988, 300,000 people in Shanghai, China were infected with HAV after eating clams from a contaminated river.