Alcoholism & Obesity, The New Causes for Liver Disease in Visakhapatnam

In what comes as a shock, alcoholism and obesity have reportedly replaced Hepatitis A and B as the major reason for liver diseases in the north coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh. The gastroenterology department of the state run King George Hospital that caters to patients from all the three north coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh including Vizag highlighted on this matter.

The KGH officials stated that a decade ago, Hepatitis A and B were the major causes for liver diseases and in the last few years there has been an increase between the number of alcoholism and obesity related liver diseases. This change has been imputed to unusual eating habits and life styles.

The head of the department of gastroenterology, King George Hospital, Andhra Medical College, Dr. LRS Girinadh reportedly stated that people are not aware about the liver conditions, as few decades ago the life style related to liver cases like non-alcoholic steatohepatitis were diagnosed and treated as cryptogenic liver diseases without doubting the underlying cause of the disease.

Now certainly things have changed, when it comes to liver related morbidity or mortality, both obesity and alcoholism increase the prevalence of liver conditions, said Dr. Girinadh. He further on added that almost 40 percent of the liver cases at the gastroenterology were related with obesity and alcoholism. He also explained that this was not the case a decade ago, there should be awareness raised about liver diseases as this could be the next major illness threat. He also proposed to establish a surgical gastroenterology department at KGH, which could help in conductiong complex resections and procedures like Whipple procedure, liver and pancreas research, liver transplant among others.

Dr. G. Arjuna the superintendent of King George Hospital said that the proposal is seriously taken into consideration.