Medical Dictionary
Main Entry:
Shi·ga bacillus Pronunciation:
'shE-g&- Function:
noun : a widely distributed but chiefly tropical bacterium of the genus
Shigella (
S. dysenteriae) that causes dysentery in humans and monkeys
Shiága /shE-gä,/ Kiyoshi (1870–1957), Japanese bacteriologist. Shigais best known for the discovery in 1897 of a bacillus that causes dysentery. Originally the bacterium was classified in the genus
Bacillus, but in 1919 along with several other species it wasplaced in a new genus,
Shigella, which was named in honor of Shiga.
