About 300 million people are currently infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV)
and about 170 million with hepatitis C virus. Both of these viruses can
cause cirrhosis and lead to liver failure or liver cancer. Both are
major public health problems (many more people are infected with these
viruses than with HIV) and therapy is only effective in a subset of
infected people.
Here I will review the biology of both viruses and show how mathematical
modeling has provided basic insights into the pathogenesis of these
viruses and provided a means of quantitatively assessing the effects
of therapy. I will present a set of state-of-the-art models that
in principle apply not only to these viruses but also to other viruses
of broad interest such as HIV.
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