[3] Silverman demonstrated that the high prevalence of malaria in some regions of Guyana was leading to widespread use of antimalarial drugs, which then caused bacteria to become resistant to important antibiotics (the quinolones).
[4][5] Through his work in Guyana, Silverman was among the team that discovered the relationship between Yaws in the New World and the outbreak of syphilis in Europe after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.
According to the study, Columbus and his men would have carried the nonvenereal tropical bacteria home, where the organisms may have mutated into a more deadly form in the different conditions of Europe.
[6][7][8][9] Silverman’s research in Africa into the use of a HAART regimen during pregnancy and breastfeeding showed that it appeared to significantly prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to infants.
In order to entice them to visit doctors during pregnancy, he instituted a program of ultrasounds with the promise that the women could see their unborn baby.
In a world-first clinical trial published in the journal Nature Medicine,[18] a multi-centre study from Lawson Health Research Institute, the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM) and the Jewish General Hospital (JGH) has found fecal microbiota transplants (FMT) from healthy donors are safe and show promise in improving response to immunotherapy in patients with advanced melanoma.
This program helped to end an HIV outbreak in London, Ontario[23][21] Silverman also showed that starting addiction counselling while in hospital (as opposed to after their release) for persons who inject drugs with heart valve infections, was associated with a reduced risk of death, possibly because patients were more receptive to change when they realized the lethal potential of this highly fatal complication.