The EASL–Lancet Liver Commission: protecting the next generation of Europeans against liver disease complications and premature mortality

Abstract

Liver diseases have become a major health threat across Europe, and the face of European hepatology is changing due to the cure of viral hepatitis C and the control of chronic viral hepatitis B, the increasingly widespread unhealthy use of alcohol, the epidemic of obesity, and undiagnosed or untreated liver disease in migrant populations. Consequently, Europe is facing a looming syndemic, in which socioeconomic and health inequities combine to adversely affect liver disease prevalence, outcomes, and opportunities to receive care. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified pre-existing challenges to uniform implementation of policies and equity of access to care in Europe, arising from national borders and the cultural and historical heterogeneity of European societies. In following up on work from the Lancet Commission on liver disease in the UK and epidemiological studies led by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), our multidisciplinary Commission, comprising a wide range of public health, medical, and nursing specialty groups, along with patient representatives, set out to provide a snapshot of the European landscape on liver diseases and to propose a framework for the principal actions required to improve liver health in Europe. We believe that a joint European process of thinking, and construction of uniform policies and action, implementation, and evaluation can serve as a powerful mechanism to improve liver care in Europe and set the way for similar changes globally.