Over fifteen years, American medicine has watched the face of liver disease change. A large study of veterans reveals that cirrhosis — once synonymous with hepatitis C — is now driven primarily by metabolic dysfunction tied to obesity, diabetes, and the conditions of modern life. Prevalence has risen by more than half in under a decade, and the disease is spreading faster than it is claiming lives, meaning the burden on patients, families, and health systems is still accumulating. The shift asks a harder question than a virus ever did: how a society addresses the slow, structural damage of how
U.S. Cirrhosis Burden Shifts to Metabolic Disease, Study Finds
Rising cirrhosis prevalence indicates increasing morbidity and mortality burden, particularly among metabolic and alcohol-associated liver disease patients.