During the Egyptian campaign, Napoleon's army suffered from what was probably infectious jaundice.

Infectious jaundice occurred among troops during the American Civil War.

In 1914-1915, Inada discovered the spriochete of infectious jaundice (Weil's disease); and he developed a successful serum-therapy for the infection.

Before Weil's characterization in 1886, the disease known as infectious jaundice was very likely the same as Weil's disease, or severe icteric leptospirosis.

Hepatitis A or infectious jaundice is caused by hepatitis A virus (HAV), a picornavirus transmitted by the fecal-oral route often associated with ingestion of contaminated food.

The name for epidemic jaundice, hepatitis A, and for blood-borne infectious jaundice, hepatitis B, were first used in 1947, following a publication in 1946 giving evidence that the two diseases were distinct.