China basketball star Yao Ming and two others -- a French businessman and a Chinese professor -- received UNAIDS awards on Wednesday for their contributions to AIDS prevention efforts and the elimination of discrimination against HIV/AIDS-infected people.

Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, presented the "UNAIDS Award for Outstanding Contributions to the AIDS Response" to the three at Beijing's Tsinghua University.

Yao thanked UNAIDS for the award via video as he was visiting earthquake victims in the southwestern Sichuan Province.

"I am very honored to receive this esteemed award for AIDS work," said the Houston Rockets center. The award was in honor of his public work and strong support to counteract the stigma and discrimination of people living with the disease.

Serge Dumont, senior vice president of Omnicom Group Inc., the world's leading advertising and marketing services agency, and Li Xiguang, a professor of communication and journalism, also were recognized.

Piot said through years of effort, the world had achieved great progress in AIDS treatment and prevention. However, much work still needed to be done in political action, funding, program delivery and science to curb the spread of the disease.

According to UNAIDS, the world currently has about 33 million AIDS cases. In China, the number of HIV/AIDS people was estimated to be around 700,000 through 2007, though the number of reported cases stood at 220,000 through October.

(Xinhua News Agency September 18, 2008)