- Silver could be used to help fight antibiotic resistance
- Can make bugs which are antibiotic resistant treatable
- Works by making bacteria more 'leaky', allowing antibiotics to get inside them and kill them
- Britain's top doctor says the rise of drug-resistant superbugs could trigger an 'apocalyptic scenario'
Silver could be a precious weapon in the fight against antibiotic resistance.
Scientists have shown that giving tiny amounts of silver at the same time as antibiotics makes the drugs up to a thousand times more effective.
The finding comes in the wake of warnings by Britain's top doctor that the rise of drug-resistant superbugs could trigger an 'apocalyptic scenario' in which even routine operations such as hip surgery become deadly because we have run out of antibiotics.
