title: Effects of replicative fitness on competing HIV strains.
abstract: We develop an n-strain model to show the effects of replicative fitness of competing viral strains exerting selective density-dependant infective pressure on each other. A two strain model is used to illustrate the results. A perturbation technique and numerical simulations were used to establish the existence and stability of steady states. More than one infected steady states governed by the replicative fitness resulted from the model exhibiting either strain replacement or co-infection. We found that the presence of two or more HIV strains could result in a disease-free state that, in general, is not globally stable.
authors.affiliation: University of KwaZulu-Natal, School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Chirovef@ukzn.ac.za
authors.forename: Faraimunashe
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chirove
authors.forename: Edward M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Lungu
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000821:virology; D060085:Coinfection / Q000821:virology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006678:HIV / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000821:virology*; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009154:Mutation; D013045:Species Specificity; D014779:Virus Replication