Stability and bifurcation analysis of an HIV-1 infection model with a general incidence and CTL immune response

In this paper, with eclipse stage in consideration, we propose an HIV-1 infection model with a general incidence rate and CTL immune response. We first study the existence and local stability of equilibria, which is characterized by the basic infection reproduction number $$ and the basic immunity reproduction number $$. The local stability analysis indicates the occurrence of transcritical bifurcations of equilibria. We confirm the bifurcations at the disease-free equilibrium and the infected immune-free equilibrium with transmission rate and the decay rate of CTLs as bifurcation parameters, respectively. Then we apply the approach of Lyapunov functions to establish the global stability of the equilibria, which is determined by the two basic reproduction numbers. These theoretical results are supported with numerical simulations. Moreover, we also identify the high sensitivity parameters by carrying out the sensitivity analysis of the two basic reproduction numbers to the model parameters.