Ans. a. 1983 (Ref: Ananthanarayan 7/e p582; Harrison 19/e p1215, 18/e p1517)The causative organism for AIDS was identified in the year 1983."In 1983, Luc Montagnier and colleagues from the Pasteur Institute. Paris, isolated a retrovirus from a West African patient with persistent generalized lymphadenopathy. which is a manifestation of AIDS, and called it 'lymphadenopathy associated virus' (LAV). It produced lytic infection in fresh peripheral blood lymphocytes but could not be established in permanent cell lines. In 1984, Robert Gallo and colleagues from the National Institute of Health, USA, reported isolation of a retrovirus from AIDS patients and called it "human T-cell lymphotropic virus-III (HTL V-III). Other similar isolates were reported from AIDS cases under different names. To resolve this nomenclatural confusion, the International Committee on liras Nomenclature in 1986 decided on the generic name human immunodeficiency virus' (HIV) for these viruses." - Ananthanarayan 7/e p582Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)The first indication of a new syndrome came in the summer of 1981, with reports from New York and Loss Angeles (USA) of a sudden unexplained outbreak of two very rare diseases-Kaposi's sarcoma and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (now pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia) in young adults who were homosexuals or addicted to injected narcotics.They appeared to have lost their immune competence, rendering them vulnerable to overwhelming and fatal infections with relatively avirulent micro-organisms, as well as to lymphoid and other malignancies.This condition was given the name 'acquired immune deficiency syndrome' (AIDS).In 1983, Luc Montagnier and colleagues from the Pasteur Institute, Paris, isolated a retrovirus from a West African patient with persistent generalized lymphadenopathy, which is a manifestation of AIDS, and called it 'lymphadenopathy associated virus' (LAV).It produced lytic infection in fresh peripheral blood lymphocytes but could not be established in permanent cell lines.In 1984, Robert Gallo and colleagues from the National Institute of Health. USA, reported isolation of a retrovirus from AIDS patients and called it 'human T-cell lymphotropic virus-III (HTLV-III).Other similar isolates were reported from AIDS cases under different names.To resolve this nomenclatural confusion, the International Committee on Virus Nomenclature in 1986 decided on the generic name 'human immunodeficiency virus' (HIV) for these viruses.