can berries give your baby hepatitis A?

It is also unclear what "the interim" means here. Are you saying she got pregnant later, after eating the berries? If she was not pregnant at the time she ate the berries then even if hepatitis A did cause congenital disease (which it doesn't) and your friend was not immunized against hepatitis A (which she is), hepatitis A does not cause a chronic infection like some other hepatitis viruses do. also, hepatitis A is transmitted by fecal-oral route, meaning that berries giving people hepatitis A must be fecally contaminated. If the berries were stored in a sealed container in the freezer there is no need to clean or sanitize the freezer which had no physical contact with the fecal particles in the berries. is your friend a very anxious person? I recommend the book "Expecting Better" by Emily Oster. Lots of scientifically grounded straight talk, very helpful for pregnant ladies to assuage concerns about diet, infections, what doesnt need to be avoided and what does.

Wouldn't this be the same as Rubella? I don't know and neither do you. edtut, your question contains so many conditionals that it's difficult to figure out what you're really asking, and on whose behalf.

1. The mother cannot carry the virus so there is nothing for the foetus to catch. 2. I'm fairly sure the foetus is not immunised in the sense that, once born, it could catch hep A. 3. Unless you have been pasting the inside of the freezer with crushed up, thawed berries that have been directly touching other food, no, just throw the packet out. You basically have to eat the berries to get the hep, and lots of people who did in fact eat the berries did not get the hep,so you will be okay. Hope this helps.

I'm not an expert on hepatitis A, but in general, if a pregnant woman is exposed to a disease to which she is immune, whether by immunization or past infection, she doesn't get infected and there is no systemic illness to pass to the baby. It's a good idea to toss out the rest of the suspect berries but, IMO, no need to disinfect the freezer.

Wouldn't this be the same as Rubella? If a non-immune woman catches Rubella at the wrong part of her pregnancy, the virus can cross the placenta and cause the baby to be malformed. But if the mother is immune (either through vaccination or by having had the disease) her baby is protected and will develop properly.

i tried to simplify it here: is it possible that a person - although immunized against hep A - could handle or eat food product that is contaminated with the virus, and in the interim get pregnant, and it could cause some harm to the baby? that isn't conditional, i am not sure what i can add to that

ah, nevermind, I think I understand the timeline now. Your friend wasn't pregnant when she ate the berries 4 weeks ago, but thinks she got pregnant during the incubation period. No need to worry - assuming she is immune to hep A from her vaccine, it cannot be incubating in her body.

The CDC recommends that all children be vaccinated against Hepatitis A at 12 to 23 months, with a second shot 6 to 18 months after the first. If the mother is immunized, the baby still needs to be immunized when the time comes. Some bacteria and viruses can get through the placenta and affect a fetus, some can't. Hepatitis viruses can't. Hepatitis B can be transmitted to the baby through the mother's bodily fluids during birth. That's why they test pregnant women for hepatitis B and give newborns a Hepatitis B vaccine. Hepatitis B and hepatitis A are two different viruses that are transmitted differently (but have similar symptoms, hence the similar names).