The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, Imperial College London and the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) today inaugurate the first WHO Collaborating Centre dedicated to liver disease, at an event at Imperial’s White City Campus attended by the Chief Executive of the British Liver Trust Pamela Healy, WHO Regional Director for Europe Dr Hans Kluge and Egypt’s Minister of Health and Population, H.E. Prof. Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar.
The Collaborating Centre on Steatotic Liver Disease (SLD) – commonly referred to as fatty liver – is the first international body explicitly mandated to turn the World Health Assembly’s resolution on liver disease — adopted in May 2026 — into national health action across the WHO European Region’s 53 Member States. It is hosted by Imperial College London and co-directed by Professor Mark Thursz and Professor Pinelopi Manousou, with EASL as its clinical and scientific partner.
Liver disease is now the only major non-communicable disease still increasing in Europe, even as mortality from heart disease and several cancers has declined. Cirrhosis and liver cancer together cause an estimated 780 deaths a day across the WHO European Region — roughly one every two minutes — and cost regional economies an estimated 47.5 billion GBP (€55 billion) a year, according to the second EASL–Lancet Commission report, published in April 2026. An estimated 1.5 billion people worldwide are living with steatotic liver disease, making it the fastest-growing cause of chronic liver disease globally.
Dr Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, said
“Every other major killer in Europe – heart disease, most cancers – is moving in the right direction. Liver disease is moving in the wrong one. That should alarm us more than it does. Cirrhosis and liver cancer take a life in this Region roughly every two minutes – around 3% of all deaths. The drivers – alcohol, poor diet, viral hepatitis – are some of the most preventable risk factors. We know what to do. What has been missing is the infrastructure to turn knowledge into national action. Today, that changes. I want to thank Imperial College London for hosting this new Collaborating Centre. This is how we finally act on what we have known for years.”
Speaking at the event, Pamela Healy, Chief Executive of the British Liver Trust said,
“What doesn’t show up in the mortality figures is the day‑to‑day impact liver disease has on people long before that — the exhaustion, the uncertainty, the devastating impact on families, and the way it steadily chips away at quality of life. Too many patients are also left feeling isolated, living with a condition that still isn’t widely understood or talked about. This new Centre is a critical opportunity to change that. The British Liver Trust is committed to working alongside it to ensure patient voices shape the response, and to drive the policy changes needed across the UK so liver disease is recognised earlier, prevented wherever possible, and no longer costing lives too soon.”
Over its initial four-year workplan, the Centre will
- lead a Pan-European baseline assessment of steatotic liver disease
- produce WHO-endorsed policy reports on the three forms of the disease — metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, the combined MetALD form, and alcohol-related liver disease
- develop the prevention briefs and training tools that Member States will draw on to build national plans.
Professor Mark Thursz, Co-Director of the new Collaborating Centre, Imperial College London said,
“Hosting this Centre means Imperial is no longer only contributing evidence on liver disease — we are now part of the mechanism that turns that evidence into national policy across an entire WHO region. Liver disease kills someone in Europe roughly every two minutes; a four-year workplan sounds modest against that scale, but it is the first time the infrastructure has existed to make sustained progress against it.”
Egypt was a founding co-sponsor of the World Health Assembly resolution, playing a decisive diplomatic role in building the cross-regional support needed to bring liver disease onto the global noncommunicable disease agenda for the first time and Professor Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar, the Minister of Health and Population from Egypt also attended the event.
Professor Debbie Shawcross, EASL Secretary General, King’s College London, said
“Liver disease is no longer a silent condition — it is a growing public health failure that we have the tools to prevent. What is missing is not evidence, but action.”
The inauguration also gave voice to patients. Nazneen Worster who is a MASH patient, attended on behalf of the British Liver Trust and spoke at the inauguration’s panel discussion, describing what it is like to live with the condition and how it affects her quality of life.