False-colour transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of a group of the rod shaped bacteria,Shigella sp. ,a pathogenic strain causing bacillary dysentery. Dysentery,affecting mainly the large intestines,varies in severity from a mild attack of diarrhoea to an accute infection. Until the introduction of the sulphonamides in the 1930s it was a killer disease of the world. It still is among the young,elderly & malnourished. The infection is spread by flies,direct contact,& water contaminated by faeces containing the bacillus. Two bacteria at bottom are dividing through binary fission. Magnification: x13,000 at 35mm size,x26,000 at 6x7cm size |