prognosis

Last reviewed 01/2018

The prognosis of HAV hepatitis is excellent:

• the illness is self-limiting without chronic sequelae and rarely persists for more than 3 months (recovery is usual about 10 days of illness)
• it accounts for less than 1% of cases of fulminant viral hepatitis
• the mortality in large epidemics is less than 1 per 1000
• viral carriage in faeces is transient
• there is only one subtype of the virus - patients develop antibodies and become immune to further infection