Viral hepatitis A (Botkin's disease) is an acute infectious viral disease characterized by predominant liver damage, jaundice and general toxic manifestations.
The causative agent of viral hepatitis A is resistant to environmental factors and can persist for a long time in water, food, and wastewater.
The hepatitis A virus is transmitted by the fecal-oral route and enters the body of a healthy person with contaminated food and water, through household items, toys, hands and causes disease. For the disease to occur, just a few viral particles enter the body. Therefore, the infection spreads easily and anyone can get sick.
From the moment of infection to the onset of the disease, 7 to 50 days pass. Susceptibility to the virus is high. After an illness, a person develops a strong immunity.
Signs of the disease: the patient’s appetite worsens, pain appears in the right hypochondrium, nausea, often vomiting, urine darkens, feces become discolored, the whites of the eyes become yellow. In some cases, the onset of the disease resembles the flu: the temperature rises to 38ºС - 39ºС, a runny nose, cough, and aches throughout the body appear.
To avoid getting viral hepatitis A you must:
• follow the rules of personal hygiene - wash your hands thoroughly with soap after returning home from the street, before eating and after visiting the toilet;
• do not drink water from random water sources, use only boiled or bottled water. Remember that the virus dies at the boiling temperature of water only after 5 minutes;
• wash vegetables, fruits and berries thoroughly before eating. Be sure to wash fruits that are peeled: oranges, bananas, tangerines. Otherwise, microbes that have settled on the peel will definitely get into your mouth;
• do not swallow water when swimming in open reservoirs and pools;
• at home, observe hygiene rules when preparing hot and cold dishes, expiration dates and storage conditions for food products, especially perishable ones; raw foods and prepared foods should be stored separately;
• do not purchase food products from random persons or places of unauthorized trade;
• thoroughly fry or boil foods.
It must be remembered that a disease is easier to prevent than to treat. One of the important measures to prevent viral hepatitis A is vaccination, and especially for travelers, tourists, vacationers in natural conditions, as well as those traveling to southern countries where a high incidence of hepatitis A is recorded.
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