Global Superbugs Herald Age of Silver

NEW YORK (Bullion Bulls Canada) -- For several years I have been touting silver's unique anti-microbial properties. Out of the nearly infinite list of technological/industrial applications for silver, it always seemed inevitable to me that this one use would ultimately become our single greatest need for the Metal of the Moon.

That suspicion could, in turn, be traced back to a single threat that has loomed ever larger, ever more menacing: superbugs. This is the colloquial name given to the bacterial monsters we have created through the reckless, excessive and simply idiotic manner in which our species has overused its single most important medicine: antibiotics.

Most readers are already familiar with the path that led us to what the World Health Organization is now openly labeling as the world's "post-antibiotic era." For those not suitably terrified by the ominous meaning of those words, read this quote from WHO Director-General Margaret Chan: "Things as common as strep throat or a child's scratched knee could once again kill."

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This is not hyperbole, as a chilling article in Bloomberg makes clear. The article identifies a newly discovered gene that exhibits two terrifying features: it renders bacteria invulnerable to antibiotics and it can transform virtually any type of bacteria into a new superbug. The bubonic plague and cholera are only two that are mentioned.