Does the Hepatitis A virus have to be ingested? Could it have been gotten from a!
Question: My Mom was in an Adult Care Center because she has Altzheimers and somehow she contacted Hepatitus A. The people at the home said no one else there shows signs of being ill and so it is a mystery kind of---of where she got it from. Any suggestions?
Answers: My Mom was in an Adult Care Center because she has Altzheimers and somehow she contacted Hepatitus A. The people at the home said no one else there shows signs of being ill and so it is a mystery kind of---of where she got it from. Any suggestions?
There is a lot of sub-acute Hepatitis A. It's possible that someone had it, had a little stomach upset and then got over the symptoms. They could then still pass it on.
Hepatitis is really contagious and something along the lines of 40% of cases are subacute, meaning that they don't really develop symptoms or only mild symptoms and therefore aren't diagnosed.
Just make sure she is taken good care of now. If she turned jaundiced she should sit in the sun for 10 minutes with as much skin showing as possible (great, it's March) 3 x a day to help break down the bilirubin (turns the skin yellow). She can do this through a window, it doesn't have to be outside. Also make sure that you don't kiss her or allow her to make or serve you any food (if she's capable). No one should eat off her plate or cup or silverware until she's cleared this.
If she is jaundiced she is contagious for 1 week after she turned yellow. If she isn't jaundiced she's considered contagious for 2 weeks after her other symptoms showed up. If she doesn't have symptoms but they found it by accident in her blood work, consider her contagious for 2 wks after the blood draw.
Be very careful about washing your own hands when you have been around her, but don't let that stop you from being with her and hugging her (just no kisses).
Hope that helps.