Warnings Issued Over Rise In Liver Disease

England is one of the few places in Europe seeing a major preventative disease getting worse, the chief medical officer says.

In her annual report Prof Dame Sally Davies highlighted the rise in liver-disease deaths in the under-65s - up 20% in a decade.

In comparison, most of the rest of Europe has seen rates fall.

She said urgent action was needed to discourage harmful lifestyles, adding that three of the major causes of liver disease - obesity, alcohol abuse and undiagnosed hepatitis infection - were all preventable.

But despite that, premature deaths from liver disease in the under-65s had jumped by a fifth since 2000 to 10 per 100,000 people.

Her study - the first volume of a two-part annual report - focused on a whole host of diseases from cancer to dementia.

But Dame Sally said it was the liver disease figures that shocked her the most, and showed there needed to be investment in prevention, early diagnosis and effective treatment.

"This is the only major cause of preventative death that is on the increase in England that is generally falling in other comparable European nations,” she said.

Adding: "We must act to change this."

(H)