David Beckham has signed up as the face of a new campaign highlighting the danger of the Ebola outbreak in a bid to stop the spread of the deadly disease.

The retired soccer star, who is an ambassador for the the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), is to appear in a video which will be screened in West Africa describing ways to stop the transmission of the virus.

Isha Johansen, President of the Sierra Leone Football Association, who is involved in the drive, tells Britain's The Sun on Sunday newspaper, "To have David Beckham involved in this campaign is massive for us and we are so grateful to him... His sympathetic message will be broadcast across the country and the whole of West Africa, and it will raise the importance of how to fight this disease by simple things like good cleanliness."

The Ebola outbreak has wreaked havoc in countries including Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone and resulted in more than 4,000 deaths.

Beckham visited Sierra Leone in 2008 for a charity trip.