Yao Ming to feature in China's AIDS campaign

Chinese NBA star Yao Ming and actor Pu Cunxin have agreed to lend their support for a UN campaign to battle the stigma against HIV/AIDS in China, it was announced yesterday.

According to Reuters, Yao, who plays center for the Houston Rockets and Pu, who has starred in movies such as "Shower" and "Spicy Love Soup" will feature on poster campaigns that aims to promote inclusion of people with HIV/AIDS in their workplaces, schools and families.

UN Development Program China official Alessandra Tissot said in a statement that the campaign hopes to "help disseminate our common stand for positive action, care and full integration of people living with HIV/AIDS."

The posters, with the slogan "HIV/AIDS will not affect our friendship," will be printed in Chinese, Tibetan, Uighur and Jingbo, which is spoken in Yunnan, one of the provinces most affected by the disease.

China has an estimated 650,000 people living with HIV/AIDS and experts fear that the disease is moving into the general population and spreading even faster. Discrimination and ignorance are thought to be major factors affecting the fight against the virus.