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.
• See notifiable communicable disease case definitions (Word 1.29MB).
• 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 management

Important information

• 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, Department of Health – Hepatitis A (external site).
• Case follow-up: Is conducted by local public health units (Healthy WA).

Guidelines for health providers

• Western Australian immunisation schedule
• Australian Immunisation Handbook, Department of Health – 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)
• OD 0392/12 Guidelines for the provision of hepatitis A and B vaccine to adults in Western Australia at risk of acquiring these infections by sexual transmission and injecting drug use (PDF 287KB)
• 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)
• OD 0490/14 Public Health Intervention for Sporadic Enteric Notifications (PDF 1MB)

Notifiable disease data and reports

• Notifiable infectious disease dashboard
• General infectious disease reports