WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Dr. Mohammad Ali Mohammad*, Dr. Oday Ahmad Khalaf, Dr. Rafi Akram Younis Al Saati

ABSTRACT

Background: Hepatitis A often manifests as jaundice, dark urine, anorexia, nausea, abdominal pain, and an abrupt onset fever. Children under 6 years of age are often asymptomatic, however older children and adults are more likely to experience symptoms such as acute hepatic dysfunction and jaundice. Objectives: To compare between icteric and non-icteric Hepatitis A virus infection regarding different demographic and clinical variable among a sample of Mosul province in Iraq. Patients and methods: This is a cross sectional study conducted at Al Salam Teaching Hospital during the period from the first of September 2022 to the first of June 2025, all patients were randomly chosen. The study included 150 subjects with clinical suspicion of A infection, aged less than 14 years. The questionnaire includes three parts, part one for sociodemographic information of the study participants. Part two for the clinical manifestations of the study participants. Part three for the prehospital and hospital received treatment. Results: The study includes 150 patients 100 (66.7%) of them had jaundice and 50 (33.3%) had no jaundice. Most of the patients had jaundice (100%), hepatomegaly (100%), fever (94%), abdominal pain (93%), vomiting (65%), malaise (53%), less frequently diarrhea was present in (21%), headache in (18%), splenomegaly in (7%) and ascites in (4%). While among non icteric group, most of patients had fever (100%), hepatomegaly (100%), abdominal pain (88%), vomiting (58%), malaise (52%), less frequently they had headache (14%), ascites (8%), diarrhea (6%) and splenomegaly (2%). It’s evident that statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding their age (P value <0.001), residence (P value <0.001), family history (P value <0.001), nutritional state (P value =0.041), personal hygiene (P value 0.023). While no statistically significant difference between the groups regarding their sex (P value = 0.378) and presence of chronic drug use (P value =1). Moreover, no statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding both prehospital and hospital received management with P value of 0.571 and 0.692 respectively. Conclusions: Icteric hepatitis A infection significant related to older children, urban residence, positive family history, bad personal hygiene and poor nutritional status. Preventive measures and supportive treatment are the main issues of decrease the incidence and management of this disease.