Hepatitis A

Statutory notification

• Hepatitis A infection is a notifiable infectious disease in Western Australia.
• Alert: cases must be reported urgently by telephone to the public health units (Healthy WA) within a few hours of first suspicion of diagnosis.
• Case definition: See Hepatitis A national surveillance case definition.
• Notifications should be made using the communicable disease notification form for metropolitan residents (PDF 209KB) or regional residents (PDF 208KB).
• For notification of regional residents see contact details of public health units.
• See also description of statutory medical notifications in Western Australia.

Public health summary

• Infectious agent: Hepatitis A virus.
• Transmission: Faecal-oral.
• Incubation period: 15 to 50 days (usually 28 to 30 days).
• Infectious period: 2 weeks before onset of symptoms to 7 days after jaundice appears.
• Case exclusion: Exclude for at least one week after onset of jaundice or two weeks after onset of symptoms (if not jaundiced). Extra exclusion may apply for high risk groups.
• Contact exclusion: Do not exclude. Contact management will be coordinated by local public health staff.
• Treatment: Varies according to symptoms refer to doctor.
• Immunisation: Recommended for Aboriginal children at 1 year and 18 months of age, some travellers and occupational groups refer to doctor. Recommended that children be vaccinated according to the Western Australian immunisation schedule. See Australian Immunisation Handbook – Hepatitis A (external site).
• Case follow-up: Is conducted by local public health units (Healthy WA).

Information and resources for health providers

• Western Australian immunisation schedule
• Australian Immunisation Handbook – Hepatitis A (external site)
• Guidelines for Managing Sexually Transmitted Infections - WA
• Communicable Disease Guidelines for teachers, childcare workers, local government authorities and medical practitioners (PDF 512KB)
• Hepatitis A Fact Sheet (Healthy WA)
• Guideline: Provision of Hepatitis A and B Vaccine to Adults in Western Australia at Risk of Acquisition by Sexual Transmission and/or Injecting Drug Use (PDF 319KB)
• Guidelines for exclusion of people with enteric diseases and their contacts 

Guidelines for public health units

• Hepatitis A, CDNA National Guidelines for Public Health Units (external site)
• Hepatitis A fact sheet (Healthy WA)
• Hepatitis A case report form (Word 397KB)
• Guideline: Public health management of notifiable enteric diseases (PDF 387KB)

Notifiable disease data and reports

• Notifiable infectious disease dashboard
• General infectious disease reports