³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

US health officials have declared that the country is facing an epidemic of loneliness that's as dangerous to health as smoking.

The Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, has called for social isolation to be treated as seriously as obesity or drug abuse.

Jeremy Nobel is a physician and public health specialist at Harvard Medical School -- and is the founder of a non-profit initiative called "Project UnLonely".

Newshour’s Tim Franks asked him if increasing loneliness was just a factor of modern life ?

(photo: A woman sits alone on a bench by the sea; credit - ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ)