Analysis of a hepatitis B viral infection model with immune response delay

In this paper, a hepatitis B viral infection model with a density-dependent proliferation rate of cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) cells and immune response delay is investigated. By analyzing the model, we show that the virus-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable, if the basic reproductive ratio is less than one and an endemic equilibrium exists if the basic reproductive ratio is greater than one. By using the stability switches criterion in the delay-differential system with delay-dependent parameters, we present that the stability of endemic equilibrium changes and eventually become stable as time delay increases. This means majority of hepatitis B infection would eventually become a chronic infection due to the immune response time delay is fairly long. Numerical simulations are carried out to explain the mathematical conclusions and biological implications.