| The development of resistance to antibiotic therapy by bacteria has been a phenomenon concurrent with the development of antimicrobial medicine. In recent years, the discovery of multi-resistant bacteria has motivated significant amounts of study in antibiotic resistance, particularly in the development of resistance in intensive care units, and established resistance as a public health issue of primary concern. One initiative that has been proposed to combat this phenomenon is the rotation of different classes of antibiotics over the duration of therapy. Studies investigating the effectiveness of this strategy have met with moderate success, and further investigation is necessary to evaluate the capability of this strategy to successfully fight infection and retard the development of resistance. In this paper, we present a preliminary mathematical model of the dynamics of bacteria-antibiotic interaction in an intensive care unit setting, and indicate its potential for serving as a tool in the investigation of cycling strategies to control infection and resistance. |
