Stability analysis of a model for HBV infection with cure of infected cells and intracellular delay

A viral infection model of HBV infection of hepatocytes with "cure" of infected cells and intracellular delay is studied. The delay corresponds to the time necessary for a newly produced virion to become infectious particles. We prove that the stability is completely determined by the basic reproductive number ^R0(τ). If ^R0(τ) ≤1, the infection-free steady state is globally asymptotically stable. If ^R0(τ)>1 then infection-free steady state becomes unstable and a unique infected steady state exists and is locally asymptotically stable. On the other hand, we derive sufficient conditions for the global asymptotic stability of the infected steady state. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the results.