Fig. 2

The comparison of vCOMBAT model and the traditional model regarding the bacterial population after treating TB patients with Rifampicin over 4 days. Both the vCOMBAT model and the traditional model [24] use the supplied drug concentration data from the compartmental pharmacokinetic model [25]. In this diagram, the x-axis shows the simulated treatment length (days). The y-axis depicts the total bacterial population throughout the treatment duration. The green and blue lines are the total bacterial population simulated by the vCOMBAT model with repeated doses and a single dose, respectively. The orange and yellow lines are the total bacterial population simulated by the traditional pharmacodynamic model [24] with repeated doses and a single dose, respectively. The bacterial population by the vCOMBAT model has a relapse that occurred later than the population by the traditional model due to the post-antibiotic effect