The sexually transmitted disease AIDS is caused by which of the following?

Correct option is B

The correct answer is (b) Virus

Explanation:
• AIDS (Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome) is classified medically as a chronic, potentially life-threatening physiological condition.
• It is specifically caused by the invasive Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
• Once it enters the body, HIV systematically attacks and weakens the host's immune system, specifically targeting the crucial CD4 cells (T cells).
• As the immune system becomes progressively compromised and weakened, the body becomes dangerously vulnerable to numerous opportunistic infections and rare cancers.
• It is primarily spread through unprotected sexual contact, direct exposure to infected blood, or vertically from an infected mother to her child during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding.

Information Booster:
• December 1st is officially observed every year as World AIDS Day globally to effectively raise social awareness and mourn those lost to the disease.
• While modern medicine currently has no definitive cure, consistent Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) can successfully manage the virus load and prevent its ongoing transmission.

Additional Knowledge:
Protozoa (Option a)
• Protozoa are responsible for causing entirely different infectious diseases such as Malaria (via Plasmodium) and Kala-azar (via Leishmania).

Helminths (Option c)
• These organisms are essentially parasitic worms that trigger localized or systemic diseases like Elephantiasis and Ascariasis, not AIDS.

Bacteria (Option d)
• Certain bacteria do cause other severe sexually transmitted diseases like Syphilis and Gonorrhoea, but they have zero involvement in causing AIDS.

So the correct answer is (b)