2 lakh people die every year in India due to liver disease, say experts

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 15

Over 2 lakh people lose their lives every year in India due to liver disease. While around 20,000 people require liver transplantation, only 2,000 transplantations are being done in India in a year.

This was claimed by Dr Vivek Vij, noted liver expert associated with a private hospital in Mohali and Noida, during the inauguration of a Liver Health Clinic here today. Dr Ashish Singhal, consultant, liver transplantation, would see the patients on every third Saturday of the month.

While stressing on the need to provide better facilities to treat liver diseases, he further stated that one in every five Indians suffers from liver problems and the most frequent causes are alcoholic liver disease, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and obesity-related liver disease. He said Punjab has an alarming incidence of alcoholic liver disease due to higher consumption of alcohol among the residents in the border state.

Dr Singhal said the health clinic opened here would deal with the liver problems of children as well as adults besides performing liver transplantations (both living and deceased donors), complex liver resections and other hepotobiliary pancreatic surgeries. He said liver transplantation was the most effective treatment for an acute and chronic liver and it is the only available treatment for the end-stage liver disease.