Mitigating the scourge of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in Ghana

Abstract

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is fast becoming the leading cause of liver disease in Western countries, affecting 25% of the general population1 and increasing to 90% of obese individuals with diabetes and other features of the metabolic syndrome.2 Moreover, its prevalence is expected to continue to rise in parallel with the obesity epidemic due to the adoption of sedentary lifestyle and increased consumption of high fat diet.3 In the United States, NAFLD is expected to become the leading indication for liver transplantation (LT) within the next 10 years.4 NAFLD is currently considered to be a major health burden in developed countries and is gradually increasing in developing countries due to urbanization and change in lifestyle habits, particularly in the countries of Arabian Gulf (with the highest incidence in the world), but it cannot be ignored in West Africa, where the problem is becoming steadily more prevalent