ABSTRACT
This chapter applies the delay partial differential equation methodology to a system that models the spatiotemporal variation of a hepatitis B virus (HBV). Persistent infection with HBV is a major health problem worldwide as it can lead to cirrhosis and primary hepatocellular carcinoma. Chronic HBV infection is often the result of exposure early in life, leading to viral persistence in the absence of strong antibodies or cellular immune responses. Therapy of HBV carriers generally aims to either inhibit viral replication or enhance immunological responses against viruses, or both. To account for the time between viral entry into a target cell and the production of new virus particles, models that include delays have been introduced. The chapter presents a Susceptible Infected Recovered Virus model, an extension of an HBV model, expressed in one-dimensional spherical coordinates to represent a domain (differential volume) of an HBV infection.
