Hepatitis A vaccination is the most important and effective preventive measure. Furthermore, to prevent hepatitis A, attention must be paid to reducing risk factors.
Behavioral causes
- Diet
- Consumption of contaminated foodNote: Hepatitis A virus (HAV) on vegetables can remain infectious for several days and even persist for months in frozen fruit.
- Sexual transmission
- Promiscuity (sexual contact with relatively frequently changing different partners or with parallel multiple partners) (very rare).
- Prostitution (very rare)
- Men who have sex with men (MSM).
- Unprotected coitus (very rare).
- Close physical contact – especially in kindergarten or in the common household – with sick persons in the phase of infection. However, this begins one to two weeks before the appearance of jaundice (jaundice) or the increase in transaminases (alanine aminotransferase (ALT , GPT)), (aspartate aminotransferase (AST, GOT)). Contagiousness persists for up to one week after the onset of symptoms.
- Use of contaminated items
Other risk factors
- Transmission of blood products
Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP)
Post-exposure prophylaxis is the provision of medication to prevent disease in individuals who are not protected against a particular disease by vaccination but have been exposed to it. For more information, see “Drug therapy.”
