Equivariant Hopf Bifurcation in a Time-Delayed Ring of Antigenic Variants

Abstract

We consider an intrahost malaria model allowing for antigenic variation within a single species. The host’s immune response is compartmentalised into reactions to major and minor epitopes. We investigate the dynamics of the model, paying particular attention to bifurcation and stability of the uniform nonzero endemic equilibrium. We establish conditions for the existence of an equivariant Hopf bifurcation in a ring of antigenic variants, characterised by time delay.