It is reckoned that the AIDS scourge began about 20 years ago. In the two decades since then, it has claimed more than 16 million lives. The World Health Organization estimates that 33.6 million people, 1.2 million of them children, live with the HIV infection that is the disease's precursor. The speed of AIDS' advance, and its virulence, pose a unique threat to humanity. That is why this week, the United Nations Security Council, for the first time ever, met to discuss a health issue. Looking at AIDS as an international-security issue is the only way it can be effectively combated.

The parallels with war are inexact, but the devastation wrought by the disease is similar. While AIDS is present in every country, it has hit Africa hardest. The southern and eastern parts of Africa, home to less than 5 percent of the world's population, have more than 50 percent of the world's AIDS cases, and 60 percent of the fatalities. By the end of last year, AIDS had left over 11 million orphans worldwide; 10 million of them are in Africa. In sub-Saharan Africa, 10 people are infected every minute. In fact, the impact of armed conflict pales in comparison: Ten times as many people in Africa have died from AIDS than from war in the 1990s.

Poverty is the perfect incubator for the disease. AIDS has proven treatable, but the drugs are expensive, costing $20,000 per person per year. This is far beyond the range of what most countries can afford; for African nations, some of the poorest and least developed in the world, it is a cruel joke. These nations lack rudimentary health-care delivery systems, as well as basic infrastructure.