Hepatitis A Virus Structure and Transmission in Virology
Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is a small, non-enveloped, single-stranded positive-sense RNA picornavirus whose structural resilience (resistance to acid, heat up to 56°C, and desiccation) enables environmental persistence and fecal-oral transmission via contaminated food, water, and person-to-person contact. HAV is hepatotropic, targeting hepatocytes and Kupffer cells, and unlike hepatitis B and C, it causes an acute, self-limiting infection rather than chronic disease, with liver damage arising not from direct viral cytotoxicity but from the host's own immune-mediated lymphocytic inflammatory response.
Hepatitis A Virus Structure and Transmission in Virology
Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is a small, non-enveloped, single-stranded positive-sense RNA picornavirus whose structural resilience (resistance to acid, heat up to 56°C, and desiccation) enables environme…