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.