Coordinates 2002, a joint publication from WHO, UNAIDA and UNICEF is the first evidence-based, consolidated review of the three different but often interacting diseases spreading through the world. This report on the AIDS, TB and malaria epidemics summarizes the burdens of these diseases, assesses the tools used to fight them, and discusses the barriers to progress. These diseases share several features. They all disproportionately affect the poor. They all further impoverish their victims and they will all require significant resources and political will to reverse their impacts.