UNAIDS appoints Preity Zinta as its Indian ambassador

New Delhi, Mar 11: Bollywood actor Preity Zinta was on Thursday named the Indian ambassador for the joint United Nations Programme on HIV-AIDS (UNAIDS).

As an ambassador, she will raise awareness on HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, with an emphasis on women and children.
Zinta is even planning to involve her Indian Premiere League cricket team, Kings XI, in the awareness programme.

"The team members of Kings XI, they will be involved in a public service film to talk about HIV-AIDS. We are also in our first game with Delhi Daredevils, which is on March 13, going to have a toss done by a person living with HIV," Zinta said.

"We will be doing a lot of on-ground...going and creating awareness, meeting people living with HIV. I think this is the first step and there is lots more to come," she added.

She also said that awareness is also required in villages besides in the cities.

"I think although there are so many awareness programmes being done amongst the people but something is still lacking. People need to put more efforts in the awareness programmes," Zinta said.

"Till now awareness programmes were conducted only in the cities but now we shall have to conduct it in the villages and rural areas of the country as well," she added.

UNAIDS is a joint venture of the United Nations, bringing together the efforts and resources of ten UN organizations to help the world prevent new HIV infections, disseminate care for people living with HIV, and mitigate the impact of the epidemic.

The 2006 estimates of the National Aids Control Organization (NACO) suggest that about 2.4 million Indians are currently living with HIV.