Reaction diffusion equations and the chronification of liver infections

A predator-prey system is used to model the time-dependent virus and lymphocyte population during a liver infection. We show mathematically that the resulting reaction-diffusion equation has non-trivial stationary solutions whenever the underlying domain is sufficiently large or fissured. The non-trivial stationary solutions are interpreted as chronic liver infections. Thus qualitative differences between acute and chronic hepatitis infections become dispensable. Finally, numerical simulations for the chronification are presented.