Hepatitis A is a contagious viral disease which causes damages to the human liver. The causal factor of this disease is hepatitis A virus, also known as HAV. Although it is age old infection, hepatitis A virus was discovered less than 40 years ago. Since the discovery and proper understanding of the disease, many effective vaccines have been created which helped in reducing the number of cases substantially. However, even today significant number of cases is found, possibly because of the ignorance of the people towards its vaccine.

Since the discovery of Hepatitis A in the year 1947 as one of the 2 major forms of viral hepatitis, some typical characteristics of Hep A virus have been known, which distinguish the disease from Hepatitis B. Some of the most common characteristics of Hepatitis A that were observed at time of its discovery included having an incubation period of fifteen to forty days, oral/fecal mode of transmission of infection, a relatively good amount of Ig prophylaxis, and a homologous immunity.

Some of the major milestones and researches in the discovery of Hepatitis A are as follows:

1944: Human Transmission of Hep. A was studied in volunteers by McCallum et al.

1945: Hepatitis A was distinguished from Hep B based on stool infectivity, degree of gamma globulin protection, type of immunity, and disinfection by Stokes and Neefe et al. Similar extended studies on other points of differentiation between two forms was done during the same year by Haven.

1947: The aforementioned characteristics of Hepatitis A virus were researched and proven.

1958: Krugman et al studied the natural history of the virus and developed standard reagents, like MS-1 and MS-2, for separation of the two forms.

1960s: Many researchers worked simultaneously in different countries across the world to study the Detroit 6 cells and animal transmission of the virus.

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