Encinitas

A relatively mild form of hepatitis has infected seven elementary schoolchildren and one adult in Encinitas, the county Health Department said Wednesday.

The children, students at Paul Ecke Central School, are believed to have contracted hepatitis A from one infected student during a Thanksgiving kindergarten banquet at the school.

Department spokesman Dave Carey said parents have been advised to have their children inoculated to protect against the disease, which has symptoms of fever, fatigue, nausea and jaundice. However, hepatitis A is a fairly mild version of the disease and is “rarely disabling,” said Carey.

The incubation period before symptoms appear is anywhere between 15 and 50 days, and Carey said the illness lasts one to two weeks.