The benefits of silver as a antibiotic were known for centuries, but got neglected with the rise of penicilin and similar drugs. But today people start to remember, also because of some bacteria getting resistant against modern antibiotics. Silver and also copper can help reducing the use (and therefore the risk of growing resistant strains of bacteria) of conventional antibiotics, and even show promising results in fighting already resistant bacteria. And they can even supress certain viruses and funguses.
However, they are not successful against every infection. So they cannot replace other antibiotics completely.
I also use silver as a desinfectant, as coins in water containers, like a coffee machine ect., and in hand cream.