Yao Ming joins Magic in HIV/Aids messages
TV stations yesterday began showing a series of advertisements featuring basketball stars Yao Ming and Magic Johnson aimed at promoting awareness of HIV and Aids.
The release of the series of public service announcements was timed to coincide with the mainland's first NBA game yesterday between Yao's Houston Rockets and the Sacramento Kings, said the Aaron Diamond Aids Research Centre, one of the sponsors.
In the four short advertisements, Rockets centre Yao and Johnson play basketball together, embrace and share a meal, to show that HIV and Aids cannot be spread through such casual contact.
Johnson, a former Los Angeles Laker star, tested positive for HIV in 1991.
The NBA's senior vice-president of community relations, Kathy Behrens, said: 'Yao Ming and Magic Johnson are internationally admired. Both men generously agreed to join us in this effort to utilise the popularity of NBA basketball in China and deliver a lifesaving message: that HIV can be stopped if everyone learns the facts about preventing the disease, and that people with HIV deserve support, compassion and care.'
Researcher David Ho, from the US-based Aaron Diamond Aids Research Centre, said: 'China is taking action to address HIV/Aids, but the epidemic there is still growing rapidly. Education is key to slowing this epidemic in China.
'Without immediate action, UNAids estimates that 20 million Chinese could be HIV-infected by 2010.'
Dr Ho estimated that more than 200 million Chinese aged 15 to 24 had little knowledge of HIV or how to prevent it. Experts estimate the mainland has as many as 1.5 million Aids cases.
The advertisements run for 30 to 60 seconds. They will be broadcast in both English and Chinese.
