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Keep your children well

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Staff

Given the outrage some have expressed at the contest being held as part of the Adolescents Get Immunized campaign, this is a good time to remind everyone of the public health benefits of childhood immunization.

The campaign in question, a combined effort by the Orange County Health Department and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, is aimed at encouraging our children to be inoculated against diseases including meningococcal disease, human papillomavirus (HPV) and tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (Tdap).

The contest portion of the effort would reward children who get vaccinated by making them eligible for prizes, including an iPod or laptop computer. As some of the critics have pointed out, this contest isn’t fair to those children who are medically unable to take these vaccinations or whose family may have a religious bias against them.

It’s also not fair to those children whose parents simply won’t take the time to get their medically eligible kids inoculated. And it’s this group that this contest hopes to flush out.

No child under 16 is supposed to be vaccinated without parental consent, and children under that age will not be vaccinated without parents taking action. If this contest can encourage eligible kids to nag too-busy parents into getting them protected through these vaccinations, it will have been successful.

No child likes getting shots, but maybe, just maybe, one child will get a vaccination that saves his or her life or prevents a disease from spreading to others.

This program, and the contest, is just another tool our county health officials are using to protect our children. These folks can use all the help they can get.

You don’t need to wait for a contest. Protect your children – get them immunized.

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