摘要：In recent years bacteria have become increasingly resistant to antibiotics, leading to a decline inthe effectiveness of antibiotics in treating infectious disease. This paper uses a framework based on anepidemiological model of infection in which antibiotic effectiveness is treated as a nonrenewableresource. In the model presented, bacterial resistance (the converse of effectiveness) develops as a resultof selective pressure on nonresistant strains due to antibiotic use. When two antibiotics are available, theoptimal proportion and timing of their use depends precisely on the difference between the rates at whichbacterial resistance to each antibiotic evolves and on the differences in their pharmaceutical costs.Standard numerical techniques are used to illustrate cases for which the analytical problem is intractable.
