The World Health Organization launched a campaign today under the slogan "One Life, One Liver" to highlight the importance of protecting the liver for a long and healthy life, while also safeguarding other vital organs such as the heart, brain, and kidneys that depend on the liver to function. The organization stated on its official website: "You have only one life, and you have only one liver, and hepatitis can affect both."
It added that the liver performs silently more than 500 vital functions daily to help keep you alive. However, viral hepatitis infections are also silent, as symptoms only appear in the later stages of the disease. Despite the existence of many different types of hepatitis viruses (from A to E), hepatitis B and C are the most concerning and cause nearly 8,000 new infections daily, most of which go undetected.
The WHO noted that over a million hepatitis-related deaths occur each year, with a new chronic infection every ten seconds. For this reason, liver health is essential for human health. On the occasion of World Hepatitis Day, the organization called for expanding testing and treatment for viral hepatitis, warning that the disease could surpass the number of deaths caused by tuberculosis, malaria, and AIDS combined by 2040 if current infection trends continue.
