Based on the reading if I had to choose specific HPV strains to cover in a new treatment, I would choose HPVs 16, 18, 31 and 35. My reasoning behind this involved me narrowing the selection from twelve strains listed into the article, to four, the high risk HPV strains; 16, 18, 31, 35. Knowing these strains account for 80 percent of cervical cancers makes them highly important. Taking into consideration the cost versus benefit analysis, I debated narrowing the choice further to just two strains, 31 and 35 due to their major causal percentage but the article stated strains 16 and 18 already have vaccines. Producing vaccines is an expensive part of the process so knowing they have vaccines developed cuts the cost of developing theirs but still being able to include them in the new treatment. Therefore I ultimately kept the decision to cover all four high risk strains in the new treatment idea. The other eight options were the 33, 35, 39, 51, 52, 56, 58, and 59. These strains are linked to cervical cancer but most are said to be possibly carcinogenic and not casual agents. Whereas the high risk strains are associated with anogenital cancer a subset of head and neck cancers. One thing that really caught my attention was the confidence that it is believed virus related cancers are underestimated. I feel like we know so much but it makes sense there’s so much more out there as there probably always will be but it was also specified these new potential findings will come from viruses and cancers we already know about! That seems so crazy to me. I wonder what the missing pieces or links are that are going to discover these newfound associations. With that said it makes me doubtful to even pick strains if we don’t know the full information, but based on the article and what we do know I would still agree to choose all four of the high risk strains as of now. As for when the treatment itself, I believe it should be administered around age 14-15. Cervical cancer is most common in women over 30 but it might be cautious to give a vaccine before a woman is sexually active.
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