HPV viruses have a massive number of strains, each with varying levels of intensity and carcinogenicity, which means that treatment and vaccine protocols should be different as well. According to Sarid and Gao 2011, there are already vaccines for some high risk strains like HPV16 and HPV18. Those should be covered in treatment immediately due to “accounting for up to ~80% of cervical cancer” as well as being associated with other types of cancer. However, many strains still don’t have vaccines. Due to the cost of developing vaccines I would argue that strains listed as possibly carcinogenic should not have vaccines developed for them. Rather, treatment when the virus is acquired should be immediate and those people should be monitored for abnormal cell growth so that if cancer develops, it is caught early. Overall, I think vaccination for highly carcinogenic HPVs is necessary, but that other strains should simply be monitored closely, rather than attempting to snuff them out.
