General Medicine

» tinuviel - Tips to Decrease Your Cancer Risk

I don't know about other viruses and cancer. I'll leave that to the professional. But your post might have answered my question regarding the target age for the vaccine in the U.S. I suppose targeting 11-12 year olds gives them a better chance of treating women who have not yet begun engaging in sexual activity.

I have another question, however. From the commercials on television, I learned that HPV is present in all women, but just does not harm most of them. If that is true, then why is a vaccine even necessary? Doesn't the vaccine just introduce the virus in a less harmful form so that the immune system can produce antibodies? Does the vaccine prevent cancer all the time, or just sometimes. If just sometimes, isn't it possible that it is targeting the very same persons who would not have developed cervical cancer in the first place?

This is all conjecture though, so feel free to blow me completely out of the water.

-- posted by tinuviel