Silver sensitized titanium vanadium mixed Ag/TiV oxide photocatalyst was synthesized using sol–gel technique. The catalyst was characterized using XRD, SEM, EDAX, HRTEM, UV-DRS, XPS, and PL analysis which reveal the formation of a predominantly rutile mixed phase nanoparticles of 25–30 nm crystallite size. The catalyst showed a marked red-shift in the absorption spectrum compared to Degussa P25. It exhibited a remarkable enhancement in the visible light photocatalytic activity in inactivating Escherichia coli, a gram-negative pathogenic bacterium, too. The conclusions are supported by a comparison with an identically synthesized TiV oxide sample. A microbicidal photonic efficiency (MPE) has been defined and a method for its determination has been proposed to facilitate quantification of the performance of the photocatalyst and the disinfection system taking into account the response of the catalyst to the radiation intensity.