Star treatment

Chinese movie star Tao Hong (right) holds a baby being injected with a vaccine against pneumococcus.

The Chinese Preventive Medicine Association and China Soong Ching Ling Foundation recently launched the One-Minute Attention - Pneumococcal Disease Prevention program to increase awareness about the disease.

Infant pneumococcal disease has a high mortality rate and a high rate of incidence among children under the age of 2. Efforts are under way to control the disease at early stages with vaccinations.

Organizers invited Tao and other Chinese movie stars to participate in a 60-second video on how to prevent pneumococcus. The video will be shown to young parents throughout China.

(China Daily 12/14/2009 page10)