[iontheball]

Not quite. Kodak has patents on silver nanoparticles for antibacterial applications. I did quite a bit of the electron microscopy to support those patents.
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It sounds like you are the man to tell us whether silver nanoparticles do perform antibacterial functions and, perhaps, whether they perform similarly against viral and fungal infections. I know that in the days of film photography, silver was used to develop pictures from camera film. It appears that somewhere in there may be a story about how Kodak stumbled onto the antibacterial qualities of silver while using it in their film developing industry.

[RetiredScientist]

We had been making nanoparticles for many applications, some for light scattering properties. Later we were producing antibacterial thread with silver nanoparticles. One of my fellow scientists tested a shirt made from the material wearing it for a week in the Adirondack mountains. It smelled pretty ripe at the end but did not have significant bacteria. I don't know of testing for antiviral properties. Our lab was not accredited for that.

[Georgia Girl 2]

In the old days the pioneers used to put a silver dollar in the water barrel on their Conestoga wagon to keep the water pure. We have a silver bar in the lower chamber of our Berkey water filter.