Silver lining for bug control

Chris Northover Photo/File

It's a risky old world we live in, and recent news is that it has got a bit riskier - research has shown that germs can be carried a long way by a sneeze, and the germs lurking in the wild are becoming more potent - Sars has evolved into a more deadly "Middle East" version, due to be spread worldwide when the Muslims return from this year's pilgrimage to Mecca.

The highly contagious Ebola virus has become even more deadly. "Super bugs" are growing and evolving in our hospitals, with MRSA or its progressions impossible to control in some places - with some patients doomed to carry it for life.

Until the past few years, medicine has been able to control most of these infections with various antibiotics, but to a greater or lesser extent the antibiotics made by the drug companies are becoming ineffective against newly evolving bacteria - people are getting sick and either staying sick or dying when they would have been cured a few years ago. The World Health Organisation is worried, saying in effect that we have found ourselves up a raging river of excrement with no paddles.

I am hardly a doctor, and what I know about medicine could be written on the back of an aspirin packet with a spray can, but I am concerned that we all need to get with the programme. We all know that the best way to get over a bug is not to catch it in the first place. Stay away from people with diseases - or, if you are ill, stay home. If you must cough in company, cough into a handkerchief or the inside of your elbow.

One of the reasons that antibiotics are becoming less effective is that they are being used unwisely - you must continue to take them after you feel better - just as your doctor prescribed them. Otherwise the bacteria remaining in your system will gain a resistance to that antibiotic, so that when it returns it will be stronger and much more resistant to that drug.

The pharmaceutical industry is spending megabucks developing new drugs that will be less effective than the previous ones and they will eventually run out of ideas or money. In short, we could be on our own - so perhaps we could search for our answers among what they did in the olden days.

Effective for me is a remedy used hundreds of years ago - silver in "colloidal" form, as microscopic bits of silver suspended in water. In 19th century wars the soldiers would get sick and often die from dysentery, whereas the officers didn't. The reason for this appears to be that the officers carried their water in silver flasks, while the men used tin or leather. Wagon trains in the old West would often keep a pure silver dollar in their water tanks to keep the water fresh. The International Space Station uses colloidal silver in its water supply and ventilation system - while these days burns bandages are usually infused with silver.

Silver is a powerful antiseptic - it seems to work on most bacteria and will even get the smell out of shoes - but it probably won't kill viruses.

I have experimented by leaving milk in two glasses at room temperature, and putting colloidal silver in one of them. While after three weeks the untreated milk went a strange colour and smelled disgusting - the "silver" milk was drinkable except for the cream that gathered on the top and became rancid. There are risks making this stuff yourself, but perhaps you could judiciously ask Professor Google to tell you how.

Chris Northover is a Wanganui-based former corporate lawyer who has worked in the fields of aviation, tourism, health and the environment - as well as designing electric cars and importing photo-voltaic panels.