HIV/HCV coinfection model: a fractional-order perspective for the effect of the HIV viral load

Abstract

We study the burden of the HIV viremia and of treatment efficacy in the severity of the patterns of the HIV/HCV coinfection. For this, we derive a simple non-integer-order (fractional-order) model for the coinfection dynamics. Fractional-order models have been proved in the literature to provide good fits to real data from patients suffering from several diseases, such as HIV, dengue fever, and others. We have computed the basic reproduction number and the stability of the disease-free equilibrium of the model. The numerical results suggest that the HIV viral load impacts impressively the severity of the HCV infection. The treatment efficacy is also found to influence the natural progression of HCV on the HIV/HCV coinfection. The latter is repeated for all values of the order of the fractional derivative. Moreover, the fractional derivative may pave the way to better understanding the individuals’ patients’ adjustments to treatment and to viremia.