Transforming Global Consciousness of Liver Health through Education and Advocacy
(Washington, D.C., March 30, 2022) – Global Liver Institute (GLI), a patient-led liver health nonprofit operating globally, today announced the launch of its global Liver Health is Public Health (LHPH) initiative with a special feature in the 2022 Your Liver supplement in the Guardian. Liver conditions continue to be misunderstood, mischaracterized, and stigmatized, resulting in under-diagnosis, under-treatment, and unnecessarily poor outcomes. This multi-year program will look to address these ongoing challenges, and shift the conversation on liver health.
GLI’s president and CEO, Donna R. Cryer, JD, shared, “There are half a billion people in the world living with liver diseases, including me. Liver conditions are stigmatized, underdiagnosed, and often untreated in part because most people lack basic knowledge about their liver. It is imperative that people learn what steps they can take to prevent liver disease, and health systems need to organize themselves in a way to better diagnose and care for liver patients.”
It has long gone unrecognized that since everyone has a liver, everyone is at risk for or already has some degree of liver disease. With this in mind, over the past several decades, liver diseases have risen to become one of the leading causes of death and illness worldwide.
Globally:
- 2 million deaths per year
- 1 in 4 people are impacted by Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Of those, 1 in 5 people living with NAFLD will develop the more advanced liver condition, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
- 75 million people are at risk of alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD)
- Liver transplantation is the second-most common solid organ transplantation, yet less than 10 percent of global transplantation needs are met at current rates.
- Viral Hepatitis (hepatitis B (HBV) and C virus (HCV)) impacts more than 360 million people worldwide
In the United States:
- Cirrhosis impacts 633,000 people
- Liver cancer impacts 42,000
- HBV impacts 2.2 million
- HCV impacts 3.5 million
- NAFLD impacts around 76 million
- NASH impacts anywhere from 4.9 million to 19 million
- Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) impacts 19 million people.
This initiative will urge the medical field globally to consider holistic liver health as an integral part of public health from nutrition, activity, prevention, early diagnosis and management of risk factors to education, support, optimized clinical pathways, and policy for children, adults, and seniors.
Through the development of workgroups specializing in the intersectional fields of public health, medicine, advocacy, and patient experience, LHPH will shift the conversation on liver health by:
- Assessing the state of liver health globally
- Developing educational resources for diverse audiences, and
- Empowering a global cohort of liver health advocates.
GLI is working collaboratively with more than 200 global partners across GLI’s liver councils, and other global efforts, on the LHPH initiative. LHPH is endorsed in North America by the Community Liver Alliance, the Fatty Liver Alliance, the Fatty Liver Foundation, the Midsouth Liver Alliance, the Liver Wellness Foundation, NASH kNOWledge, the Liver Coalition of San Diego, the Texas Liver Foundation, the Northeast Ohio Liver Alliance, the Liver Health Foundation, HepCURE, and the Empire Liver Foundation. Globally, the program is endorsed by the Hepatology Society of the Philippines, the European Society for Organ Transplant, Liver Patients International, Turkish Association for the Study of the Liver, the European Reference Network on Metabolic Diseases and the World Hepatitis Alliance.
If you are interested in learning more about LHPH or in joining a workgroup to guide the creation of educational materials, please reach out to Giacomo Donnini at gdonnini@globalliver.org.
This initiative is made possible in the United States thanks to the support of Salix Pharmaceuticals and, globally, thanks to the support of Sanofi.
About Global Liver Institute
Global Liver Institute (GLI) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in the belief that liver health must take its place on the global public health agenda commensurate with the prevalence and impact of liver illness. GLI promotes innovation, encourages collaboration, and supports the scaling of optimal approaches to help eradicate liver diseases. Operating globally, GLI is committed to solving the problems that matter to liver patients and equipping advocates to improve the lives of individuals and families impacted by liver disease. Follow GLI on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.