ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the evolution of HIV/AIDS from an unknown health condition as recently as the early 1980s to one of the most notorious diseases of our time, and outlines the initial response at the international level to a global epidemic. The notoriety of the HIV/ AIDS epidemic can be attributed to many factors, ranging from its origin as a disease that primarily affected gay men in the United States and other rich countries and the identification of sex, both homosexual and heterosexual, as a means of HIV transmission to the vast numbers infected with the virus worldwide and the millions of deaths that it has caused so far, and the long-term impact on economic well-being and human development in poor countries. Following initial doubts about the generalized nature of the disease and its potential as a global epidemic, growing awareness of the negative impacts of HIV/AIDS contributed to early efforts by the United Nations, mainly through its health agency the World Health Organization (WHO), toward a coordinated global response.
