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[Biowatch]

$35 billion race to cure a silent killer: NASH

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/35-billion-race-cure-silent-killer-affects-30-million-americans-n953326

Across the United States, millions of people of all ages suffer from this silent killer that slowly morphs from nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a condition that now affects 89 million in the U.S., according to the Center for Disease Analysis. The National Institutes of Health estimates as many as 30 million people, or 12 percent of U.S. adults, now have NASH.

The effects of the disease — which include fibrosis, ascites (fluid accumulation in the abdomen), bleeding varices in the esophagus and liver cancer — are devastating. “By 2020 NASH will overtake hepatitis C as the No. 1 cause of liver transplantation in the U.S.,” says Dr. Maria Yataco, a gastroenterologist who is conducting research on NASH and liver disease at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.