A 65-year-old homeless man is found in the street and is brought to the emergency room with severe lethargy. He is treated with intravenous fluids but lapses into a coma and expires. Examination of...

A 65-year-old homeless man is found in the street and is brought to the emergency room with severe lethargy. He is treated with intravenous fluids but lapses into a coma and expires. Examination of the brainstem at autopsy shows a soft lesion in the tegmentum of the pons. A section stained for myelin with luxol fast blue is shown in the image. Which of the following is associated with this disorder?

(A) AIDS

(B) Alcoholism

(C) Hypertension

(D) Multiple sclerosis

(E) Viral infection