While reading “Viruses and Human Cancer: From Deletion to Causality”  by Sarid and Gao (June 2011) I thought it was impressive that scientists had been able to determine a relationship between these viruses and cancer. I think this article helped demonstrate how vaccines can  be effective not only in preventing a virus transmission but also preventing other diseases(in this case human cancers) that could potentially result in death. 

After reading Sarid and Gao’s article on viruses and human cancer  I would recommend to my colleague that we focus on HPV strains 31 and 45 for a treatment. In their article Sarid and Gao state that “ High-risk HPVs 16, 18, 31, and 45 account for ~80% of cervical cancers” (Sarid & Gao, 2011). Although there are other HPV strains, including HPV 51 and 52, those were currently only labeled as “possibly carcinogenic” by  Sarid and Gao. While they could potentially pose a threat to human health, I think we should focus on strains that we know cause risk for patients. I suggest my colleague focus on HPV 31 and 45 because with these strains we are certain that they do have a role in increasing an infected individual’s risk of cancer (this case being cervical cancer). Prevention of HPV transmission lowers transmission of human cancers which is something extremely beneficial as we currently do not have a cure for cancer. I think this treatment should be administered as a vaccine to younger children similar to how the hepatitis B vaccine was administered.