Bacteria can infect any area of the body. Pneumonia, meningitis, and food poisoning are just a few illnesses that may be caused by harmful bacteria. Bacteria come in three basic shapes: rod-shaped (bacilli), spherical (cocci), or helical (spirilla).

What does Spirillum do to humans?

The term spirillum is used generally for any of the corkscrew like species. It is a genus of spiral-shaped bacteria (Fig. 7.5) of the family Spirillaceae, aquatic except for one species (S. minus) that causes a type of rat-bite fever in humans.

What diseases does Spirilla bacteria cause?

Spirillum minus, a short, spiral bacterium, is a cause of rat-bite fever. S. minus is more common in Asia than in the US and elsewhere in North America, where most cases of rat-bite fever are caused by Streptobacillus moniliformis. In Japan, the disease is known as sodoku (so, “rat”; doku, “poison”).