World Liver Day
World Liver Day, celebrated on 19 April 2024, whose making was by representatives of the Croatian Gastroenterological Society (CGS) with the support of the Ministry of Health, Republic of Croatia and the City Office for Social Protection, Health, Veterans and Persons with Disabilities of the City of Zagreb, organized a press conference and a day later and public health action in the premises of CGS.
At the press conference there were representatives of the CGS (Professor Ivica Grgurević, Associate Professor Ivana Mikolašević, and Professor Tajana Filipec Kanižaj, Ph.D.), the Ministry of Health (Ms. Maja Gusić Božikov) and the City Office (Dr. Mirela Šentija Knežević) talked about epidemiological trends, risk factors, possibilities of prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of liver diseases.
The problem of fatty liver is particularly highlighted, which according to estimates affects about 25% of the adult population, and is connected by common etiopathogenetic factors with other leading diseases today, resulting in an increased incidence of obesity, unhealthy diet and lack of exercise. The importance of research conducted with the aim of finding simple and precise diagnostic tools for screening the general population for liver diseases was also highlighted, to which the School of Medicine, University of Zagreb contributes in cooperation with the University Clinical Hospital Dubrava through participation in two scientific research projects from the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, LiverScreen and LIVERAIM, which deal with this issue and are coordinated in front of the School of Medicine by Professor Ivica Grgurević.
During the public health campaign, interested citizens (230 responded) had a liver examination with the Fibroscan device, which painlessly and quickly determines the presence and degree of liver steatosis and fibrosis. On that occasion, appropriate educational leaflets were distributed to the citizens, and our colleagues explained the problem of liver disease to the citizens, gave advice and answered the questions.
In addition to the doctors, young fellow members of the Student Section for Gastroenterology and Hepatology of the School of Medicine University of Zagreb also participated in this action, which demonstrated in the best way togetherness and the tendency to improve the trends and outcomes of liver disease treatment.