WHO Declares Loneliness Global Public Health Concern; Can Loneliness Kill You?

 

Loneliness has been identified as a global public health problem by the World Health Organization (WHO), a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN), with effects comparable to smoking fifteen cigarettes a day. In order to address the potentially fatal condition, the WHO has also started a number of projects.

The World Health Organization’s director general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stated that high rates of social isolation and loneliness have detrimental effects on people’s health and wellbeing. Individuals who do not have adequate close social ties are more vulnerable to despair, anxiety, dementia, suicide, stroke, and other illnesses.

What is isolation?
Being alone can cause people to feel uncomfortable mentally or emotionally, which is known as loneliness. You feel uncomfortable or distressed emotionally because you don’t have any social ties. It’s frequently referred to as social agony.

An international commission has been established by WHO to address the problem of loneliness. Dr. Vivek Murthy, Chido Mpemba, the youth ambassador for the African Union, and eleven government ministers and advocates — among them Ayuko Kato, the minister in charge of loneliness and isolation policies in Japan — lead the commission.

The group will endeavor to tackle the health hazards linked to social exclusion and desolation. The group will come up with practical answers to the loneliness problem.