Your liver performs over 500 functions every day. It filters everything that enters your body — food, medications, alcohol, environmental toxins — and is the most overworked organ you have. When it fails, every other system feels it.

What is the liver actually doing?

Beyond filtration, the liver produces bile that digests fats, stores glucose as glycogen and releases it when blood sugar drops, synthesizes clotting factors and albumin, metabolizes hormones and drugs, and stores essential vitamins and minerals. There is no dialysis-like technology that replaces liver function for long — which is why liver disease is such a serious diagnosis.

The main categories of liver disease

• Viral hepatitis: Hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E. B and C are the leading causes of chronic liver disease and liver cancer globally.
• Fatty liver disease: Both alcoholic (ALD) and non-alcoholic (NAFLD/MAFLD) — the fastest-growing category, tied to metabolic syndrome.
• Autoimmune conditions: Autoimmune hepatitis, primary biliary cholangitis, primary sclerosing cholangitis.
• Genetic disorders: Hemochromatosis, Wilson’s disease, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
• Drug-induced liver injury: Acetaminophen overdose remains a leading cause of acute liver failure.

Why it matters in Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa has one of the highest global burdens of viral hepatitis, yet screening and treatment access remain uneven. Building clinical capacity around early diagnosis, vaccination, and antiviral treatment is one of the most impactful interventions available for reducing preventable mortality on the continent.

Understanding what the liver does — and how it fails — is the first step to catching disease before it becomes catastrophic.