Global behavior of delay differential equations model of HIV infection with apoptosis (Q894978)

The authors consider a delay differential equation model for HIV infection dynamics with three variables: the number of uninfected cells, of infected cells, and of viruses. The model contains two general functions describing the combined rate of death of uninfected cells and apoptosis induced by infected cells, and the rate of uninfected cells becoming infected by the HIV viral particles. Under certain assumptions on the properties of these two functions, they show that solutions of the model exist, are unique, nonnegative and bounded. They define the basic reproductive number \(R_0\) and show that if \(R_0<1\) then the infection-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable, while if \(R_0>1\) there is a unique positive equilibrium which is locally asymptotically stable. They also show that solutions are permanent, i.e., bounded above and below as time tends to infinity.