What should you know about hepatitis A and fatty liver?

Hepatitis A is an infection caused by a virus and can begin with feeling generally unwell, nausea, poor appetite, or abdominal discomfort before jaundice or dark urine appears. Fatty liver means excess fat has built up in liver cells; it has different causes and may cause no symptoms. Having fatty liver does not by itself mean a person has hepatitis A, and hepatitis A does not mean fatty liver is present. A clinician uses the history, examination, blood tests, and sometimes imaging to separate these possibilities. See [Hepatitis A](/conditions/hepatitis-a/) and [Feeling Generally Unwell](/symptoms/feeling-generally-unwell/).

Tell your clinician about recent travel, sick contacts, food or water exposure, alcohol intake, medicines, and any previous liver diagnosis. Do not start supplements or stop prescribed medicines without advice. A [Liver Function Test](/treatments/diagnostics-and-screening/liver-function-test/) can show how the liver is responding, but results need interpretation alongside other tests. If hepatitis A exposure is possible, ask promptly about [Hepatitis A Vaccination](/treatments/preventive-care-and-vaccination/hepatitis-a-vaccination/) and household precautions.

Contact a clinician for dark urine, yellow eyes or skin, persistent nausea, worsening appetite, or unusual tiredness. Go to urgent care for confusion, severe vomiting, severe abdominal pain, bleeding, or inability to keep fluids down. Existing liver disease can change how quickly symptoms need review.

Ask which diagnosis the findings support, whether infection testing is needed, how existing fatty liver changes monitoring, and which medicines or supplements should be avoided.