Biocide-Resistant Microbes Meet Their Match: Silver
July 31, 2000
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(July 31, 2000 – Washington, D.C.) Diseases ranging from sore throats to pneumonia that were once conquered by antibiotics are again on the rise. Microbes resistant to the wonder drugs now proliferate. According to the World Health Organization, which recently completed its first major report on the issue, these microbes are mutating at an alarming rate into much more dangerous infections that fail to respond to drugs.
The reason is that antibiotics are essentially designer drugs – each crafted to wipe out a type of microbe causing a specific disease. Though the specific microbes killed by the antibiotics are gone, the problem is resistant varieties and mutations have worked around the antibiotics and these are on the increase. The spectacular life of the antibiotics may prove problematic.
As a result, increasingly, physicians and sanitation engineers are turning to that long-standing biocide: silver. According to Paul Bateman, Executive Director of The Silver Institute in Washington, D.C., the action of silver is different. "Silver is not disease specific, but structure specific. Any bacteria, virus, fungi, or protozoa lacking a sufficiently protective cell wall has no defense against silver," Bateman said. On the other hand, cells with protective walls, such as all mammalian cells, block action by silver.
Silver acts more like a general antiseptic than an antibiotic, which have single targets. Once the bacteria can block an antibiotic from attacking its target membrane, it becomes resistant, whereas once the silver attacks the membrane of bacteria, the bacteria have no latitude to maneuver.
Silver has long been on the medical scene. Over one hundred years ago, dilute silver nitrate was applied to newborns' eyes that virtually eliminated diseases causing blindness in millions of children caused by exposure to venereal disease during birth. Over 125 leading hospitals in the U.S. and Canada have installed silver/copper ionization systems to eradicate Legionnaires disease from their hot water recirculation lines.
Today, silver is a significant partner in sanitation from households to hospitals. For example, silver sulfadiazine has become the treatment of choice for burn wounds where its powerful antibacterial action allows wound areas to heal unimpeded by invading bacteria requiring no pain-relieving drug prior to dressing changes.
Silver also helps sanitize catheters. Over 80% of patients admitted to hospitals are catheterized. In the United States alone, some 120,000 patients acquire catheter-related illnesses and of these, 45,000 die from the catheter-related malady. The most effective solution to long-lasting sanitation of catheters has proven to be a silver, or a silver-containing coating on the outside surface of the needle. Silver is the coating of choice on catheters because silver basically inhibits all bacteria.
Also, decades of clinical experience have shown electrically driven silver ions rapidly enhance the regeneration of normal human structures destroyed by episodes of severe wounding. In a period of days or weeks, with regular changes of a silver-coated dressing that covers the severe wound, regeneration of the original structure proceeds unimpeded by inactivating bacteria in the wound area, until full regeneration of original function is complete. Success has been achieved in promoting rapid bone growth in cases where bone has not healed for long periods.
Essentially, any product or system subject to microbial invasion finds advantageous applications of silver. Among which are no hazards in the use of silver, be it in the home, in the workplace, or in the environment.
The Silver Institute is a nonprofit international association. Established in 1971, the Institute serves as the industry's voice in increasing public understanding of the value and many uses of silver. For more information on silver and its many uses, visit the Silver Institute's webpage at www.silverinstitute.org.
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For Further Information Contact:
Mike DiRienzo
The Silver Institute
1112 16th Street, N.W., Suite 240
Washington, D.C. 20036
Tel: (202) 835-0185
Fax: (202) 835-0155
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