Some 38 million people are infected with human immunodeficiency virus, the virus that causes AIDS. While some estimates had placed the number at 40 million, reality is, world health officials are unable to address the epidemic, which is most severe in sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

In fact, a new U.N. report says governments worldwide are not doing enough to prevent the spread of AIDS. Only one in five people worldwide has access to prevention programs, it said.

The AIDS epidemic initially affected mostly men, but the U.N. report says recent surveys show that nearly half of all people infected between the ages of 15 and 49 are female. In Africa, more than half are women. The proliferation of the disease among women worldwide suggests the need for a more holistic approach to diagnosis, prevention and treatment because HIV-infected women not only can spread the disease through unprotected sex or blood exposure, they can transmit it to their babies during birth or by breast feeding.

A variety of strategies to address the global AIDS epidemic have been recommended in recent months, with G-8 nations agreeing to fast-track research on an AIDS vaccine to a more recent proposal to establish an "AIDS corps" similar to the Peace Corps to administer drugs to AIDS victims in the Third World. Recently, Harvard University researchers revealed that daily vitamins can delay the progression of AIDS in HIV-infected women. It's no cure but it can buy time for some patients until a course of anti-viral drugs can be administered. However, 25 percent of the women in the vitamin study died or developed full-blown AIDS during the eight-year trial. Without anti-retroviral treatment virtually all can be expected to die within several years.

The grim reality — absent the development of a vaccine or a cure — is that millions of people across the globe will die of AIDS. Sub-Saharan Africa is perhaps the most vulnerable region of the world because it has 70 percent of the world's AIDS cases, an astonishing number considering that only 10 percent of the world's population lives there.

In Africa, AIDS threatens the wellbeing of an entire generation and places the rest of the world at heightened risk for terrorism. Failed African states could readily become safe havens for terrorists. Saudi-born terrorists, for instance, were drawn to the destruction and turmoil of Afghanistan.

With 38 million people worldwide infected with HIV, and very likely facing an AIDS-related death, the time for handwringing is over. Global education, prevention and treatment programs were needed yesterday. Work toward an HIV vaccine must be expedited.

AIDS is more than a global health crisis, it poses grave potential for the proliferation of terrorism as terror cells seek breeding grounds in states overwhelmed by death and disease. A strategic plan to deal with the spread of HIV would save lives and help to stem the spread of terrorist activities, a boon on both fronts.