Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 November 2003
We consider a simple model for the immune systemin which virus are able to undergo mutations and are in competitionwith leukocytes. These mutations are related to several other concepts which havebeen proposed in the literature like those of shape or ofvirulence – a continuous notion. For a given species, the system admits aglobally attractive critical point. We prove that mutations do not affect thispicture for small perturbations and under strong structural assumptions.Based on numerical and theoretical arguments, we also examine how, releasing these assumptions, the system can blow-up.