Figure 3.

Transmission rates of bacteria will interact with resistance management strategies. Antibiotic mixing strategies rely on reducing the efficacy of transmission of resistant bacteria to new hosts, so that bacteria resistant to drug A are less likely to find themselves in a host being treated with drug A. Mixing strategies are unlikely to work under a high force of infection from a resistant microbial population, since patients may acquire multiple resistant microbes before antibiotic therapy begins (see Box). Broadening the transmission network to include more susceptible microbes should favour mixing, as would increasing the number of drugs in a mixing strategy