One in five Indians is affected by liver disorder every year: Dr Bhattacharya

28 June, Kolkata

In recent times, the liver has been under serious threat owing to various liver damaging diseases.

Liver diseases are of different kinds and very common. One in five Indians is affected by liver disorder every year. Approximately 2.5 lacs people in India are suffering from them.The most common type of liver infection is caused by viruses, such as Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C, a Consultant Interventional Radiologist at CK Birla Hospitals Dr Avik Bhattacharya here said.

He said the patients suffering from underlying chronic Hepatitis B (HCB), Hepatitis C (HCV), Fatty liver disease and Cirrhosis can easily fall victim to liver cancer which is called Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC). HCC is now the third leading cause of cancer deaths across the world, with over 500,000 people affected.

In the coming years, the threat of HCC is expected to grow significantly.HCC involves high-mortality rate due to late diagnosis. There is a huge lack of proper screening facility for early diagnosis in India. Thus, most of the patients suffer due to late diagnosis as the last stage liver disease treatment is still at an evolving stage world-wide, particularly in India, Dr Bhattacharya said.

He said in India only 20 per cent of the population are diagnosed early, while 80 per cent of them go undetected till the last stage. Unfortunately, owing to the absence of proper screening facility the ailment is mostly unidentified during its nascent stage. At this stage the tumour is potentially curable and the survival rate of the patient is fairly high.

“Whereas, at the advanced phase, we only find inoperable tumours which are fully developed and beyond any permanent cure. It is no wonder that the mortality rate of liver cancer is soaring in our country and it will undoubtedly persist as a vital problem given the diversified mushrooming causes like obesity, diabetes, hypertension, excessive smoking and sustained alcohol consumption,” Dr Bhattacharya said.