World Liver Day
Next: April 19, 2027
Thank the organ that quietly works.
The story
Where it comes from
World Liver Day began in India in 2019 as a day to raise awareness of liver disease. In 2023 five major liver associations, from Europe, the United States, the Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa, turned it into an international movement and called on the World Health Organization to endorse 19 April as World Liver Day every year. They now run it together as the Healthy Livers, Healthy Lives coalition, to promote prevention, improve screening and widen access to timely treatment, because liver disease can be present even in people who have no symptoms.
How it's celebrated
The coalition runs a joint campaign each year, and liver specialists use the day to talk about prevention, screening and treatment. It is a good day to give your own liver a thought: eat well, keep active, go easy on alcohol, and ask a doctor about a check if you think you may be at risk.
Did you know
- The liver is the body's largest solid organ, weighing about 1.8 kg in men and 1.3 kg in women.
- It does more than 500 jobs, from turning food into energy to removing toxins such as alcohol.
- It has a remarkable ability to repair itself, but only up to a point: long-term damage can go beyond what it can reverse.
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