World Liver Day Date in the current year: April 19, 2025

The liver is a highly specialized organ that performs up to 500 essential biological functions, including detoxifying harmful substances and processing nutrients from the foods you eat. When the liver isn’t functioning properly, toxins build up, nutrient absorption decreases, and metabolism slows, negatively affecting your overall health. It is literally irreplaceable: there is currently no device or artificial organ that can perform all the functions of the liver.

The liver is a vital organ that supports almost every other organ in the body. Because of its strategic location in the abdomen and its wide range of functions, it is susceptible to more than a hundred diseases, which are collectively known as liver disease or hepatic disease. Some of the most common liver diseases are:

• Hepatitis (inflammation of the liver), which can be caused by viruses, toxins, autoimmunity, or some genetic conditions.
• Fatty liver disease: accumulation of excess fats in the liver, which can be caused by excessive alcohol consumption, obesity, metabolic disorders, certain medications, and a number of other causes.
• Cirrhosis: replacement of dead liver cells with fibrous tissue, which can be caused by chronic viral hepatitis, alcohol and other toxins, and other causes.
• Parasitic infections, such as fascioliasis and schistosomiasis.
• Liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma, intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, angiosarcoma and hemangiosarcoma, hepatoblastoma).
• Primary biliary cholangitis: an autoimmune disease characterized by slow progressive destruction of the small bile ducts.

Although the liver is the only internal organ that can regenerate lost or damaged tissue, liver disease can cause irreparable damage, which is why it is so important to take care of your liver health. Preventive measures include reducing or eliminating alcohol consumption, quitting smoking, minimizing sugar, processed foods, simple starches and trans fats in the diet, exercising, etc.

World Liver Day has been celebrated every year on April 19 since 2010. It was established by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), a leading hepatology association focused on pursuing excellence in liver research, the clinical practice of liver disease, and the education of those interested in hepatology.

EASL organizes the event together with other organizations such as the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), the Latin American Association for the Study of the Liver (Asociación Latinoamericana para el Estudio del Hígado, ALEH), the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL), and the Society on Liver Disease in Africa (SOLDA).

World Liver Day aims to raise awareness of liver health and the prevalence of liver disease around the world. It aims to bring together communities, health professionals and policy makers around the world to address the growing burden of liver disease and to educate the general public about ways to maintain liver health.