As the nation watches and waits to see if HN51, commonly called bird flu or avian flu, will become a threat to humans, and firms are scrambling to hopefully develop a cure before there’s even anything to target or conduct tests with, it appears that a new form of ionic silver may already be providing us with a remarkably effective treatment for not only a bird flu pandemic that may or may not occur but also an enormous range of infectious diseases that are a very real part of our world today. The fact is that the medical field has yet to prove itself able to deal effectively with virtually any virus, let alone a new one that does not even yet exist. Yet a rapidly growing phenomenon is taking place wherein ionic silver is emerging as the new antimicrobial wonder in dealing with bacterial as well as, yes, viral conditions too, both in medicine and in industry.
A Respected Antimicrobial and More
Ionic silver was actually a commonly-used antimicrobial 100 years ago, before the advent of modern antibiotics, which only address bacteria and are becoming largely obsolete while posing risks related to resistant super-germs. Ionic silver is increasingly being recognized for its broad-spectrum antimicrobial qualities and the fact that it presents virtually none of the side-effects related to antibiotics. Ionic silver is entirely non-toxic to the body. Research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has shown that some resistant strains of disease cannot develop with ionic silver the way that they will with antibiotics. Reports of any pathogens developing resistance to ionic silver are rare. Some reports indicate it even kills drug-resistant strains of germs.
Ionic silver is also a powerful tissue-healing agent, so much so that it has been used topically for decades in burn centers and currently represents one of the fastest growing sectors – if not the fastest growing sector – in wound care today.
The fact that ionic silver is effective against a very broad range of bacteria is well established and, due to recent advances in the delivery of ionic silver, together with the problems associated with antibiotics, it is being used in a rapidly growing range of dietary-supplement, medical, and industrial products. Illustrating how serious this trend is, in a report published in April 2006 by Chemical & Engineering News about a new method from Nexxion for applying ionic-silver coating to catheters, IV needles, and other medical devices, the chief technical officer of the company is quoted as saying, “To date, no pathogens have been able to survive contact with silver.”
