“It is an ‘underappreciated’ threat to health that has now become widespread.”

CNN — The World Health Organization is making loneliness a global health priority, it said Wednesday, launching a new Commission on Social Connection.

For the next three years, the commission will focus on ways to address the “pressing health threat” of a global epidemic of loneliness, reviewing the latest science and designing strategies to help people deepen their social connections. It’s co-chaired by African Union Youth Envoy Chido Mpemba and US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, who has written and spoken extensively about the risks of social isolation and has made the issue one of his top concerns while in office.

According to one survey almost a quarter of the world feels lonely. Gallup says nearly one in four people worldwide — which translates into more than a billion people — feel very or fairly lonely, according to a recent Meta-Gallup survey of more than 140 countries.

Notably, these numbers could be even higher. The survey represents approximately 77% of the world’s adults because it was not asked in the second-most populous country in the world, China.

Continue to the full article from CNN here.

Continue to the full article from Gallup here.