The California Department of Health Services Immunization Branch is recommending that all California children age 2 and older receive a vaccination for hepatitis A, a virus that can cause sickness and, in rare cases, death.

Jeffrey Goad, Pharm.D., M.P.H., a USC assistant professor of clinical pharmacy and co-coordinator of the Community Pharmacy program, says the recommendation stems from the relatively high prevalence of the virus in the western and southwestern regions of the U.S.

He notes that states in those regions frequently have incidences of the disease greater than 10-20 cases per 100,000 people--a level that warrants greater preventive measures, such as hepatitis A immunization of children.

"The vaccine is 95 to 100 percent effective and is very safe," he says, adding that the two-shot series should provide protection for at least 10 years.

Goad explains that hepatitis A is a virus that spreads through oral-fecal transmission and is common in developing countries with unsanitary water and food supplies. It can cause nausea, abdominal pain, jaundice and fevers in normally healthy people. In fewer than 1 percent of cases, the disease is fatal, although such severe cases usually affect people who are in poor health or have chronic liver ailments. Children often have no symptoms, but can easily spread the disease to adults who are more likely to suffer complications.

Although the vaccination is not required, many California pediatricians began recommending it in 2000. Goad also notes that anyone traveling to non- industrialized nations "should not leave home without it."