The UN General Assembly passed the 2001 UN political declaration on HIV/AIDS. This declaration finally brought together countries to recognize the multifaceted AIDS crisis as “a paramount health, development, human rights, and social challenge.” It also called for the establishment of a better funding mechanism. Separately, the declaration paved the way for other international bodies such as the World Trade Organization to set international guidelines on issues such as drug distribution. But this was only the beginning. No global data was available on how many people had AIDS, especially outside the West. Meanwhile, the health-care gap between people with AIDS in countries such as the United States and South Africa only seemed to be widening.