Book excerpt: This ambitious book provides a comprehensive history of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Programme on AIDS (GPA), using it as a unique lens to trace the global response to the AIDS pandemic. The authors describe how WHO came initially to assume leadership of the global response, relate the strategies and approaches WHO employed over the years, and expound on the factors that led to the Programme’s demise and subsequent formation of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS(UNAIDS). The authors examine the global impact of this momentous transition, portray the current status of the global response to AIDS, and explore the precarious situation that WHO finds itself in today as a lead United Nations agency in global health. Several aspects of the global response – the strategies adopted, the roads taken and not taken, and the lessons learned – can provide helpful guidance to the global health community as it continues tackling the AIDS pandemic and confronts future global pandemics. Included in the coverage: The response before the global response Building and coordinating a multi-sectoral response Containing the global spread of HIV Addressing stigma, discrimination, and human rights Rethinking global AIDS governance UNAIDS and its place in the global response The AIDS Pandemic: Searching for a Global Response recounts the global response to the AIDS pandemic from its inception to today. Policymakers, students, faculty, journalists, researchers, and health professionals interested in HIV/AIDS, global health, global pandemics, and the history of medicine will find it highly compelling and consequential. It will also interest those involved in global affairs, global governance, international relations, and international development.