General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Michael Douglas says oral sex caused his throat cancer [View all]Ms. Toad
(38,716 posts)are granular enough to provide relevant information.
There are 100+ strains - only a few are associated with cervical cancer.
Are those infections which are transient the ones associated with cervical cancer?
With 100+ strains, 95% being transient is still consistent with the remaining 5% being potentially deadly. If the point of the vaccine is to protect against the strains associated with cervical (and other) cancers, and those strains are not transient, who cares that the others are? Nothing in the article provided enough information to answer that critical question.
Not to mention that the quotes are misleading - in that they omit the "but" portion of the comments: "though they are likely to be re-infected if they are sexually active."