CHAPEL HILL - A joint program by the Orange County Health Department and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools to encourage adolescent immunizations has come under criticism by some parents.

Called the Adolescents Get Immunized campaign, children from grades five through 12 are encouraged to be inoculated against meningococcal disease; human papillomavirus (HPV); and tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (or Tdap). Of these, Tdap vaccination is mandatory for children entering the sixth grade, while the other two are recommended.

Besides education and walk-in vaccination clinics, the campaign includes a contest, which is the source of some parents' concern.

Students who show proof of vaccination between April 1 and May 31 to their school nurse by June 1 are eligible for a drawing to win an iPod or laptop. Three winners, from the fifth grade, middle school and high school levels, will be drawn.

The prizes are sponsored by Paul and Cora Harrison, a Chapel Hill couple whose daughter died of meningococcal disease and now advocate greater awareness of the disease.

Some parents say the contest encourages a procedure they consider unsafe.

"The school system, or state, is endorsing an unnecessary medical procedure that carries the risk of serious injury or death, and they are not informing the contest participants of that risk," said Alan Phillips, a parent of a 17-year-old in a Chapel Hill high school.

Phillips said he understands the school district's good intentions but takes issue with the lack of full disclosure on the possible problems and side effects caused by vaccinations.

"On a lesser level, even if there was no problem at all with the vaccines, the contest is unfair because children whose parents are exercising a religious or medical exemption, those children are by definition excluded; they don't get to participate," he added.

Phillips, an attorney with expertise in vaccine legal exemptions and waivers, wrote to Superintendent Neil Pedersen about his objections.

On his blog, Pedersen gave details of the contest and said the winners would have their pictures published in local newspapers. When contacted for a response to Phillips' and other similar concerns, Pedersen directed enquiries to CHCCS Health Coordinator Stephanie Willis.

Willis said the contest was not CHCCS' idea but was done in support of the Orange County Health Department. She said she did not know how many students might participate and said the district had received positive as well as negative feedback.

Another Chapel Hill parent, Sharon Drake, has two daughters, ages 12 and 13, in the school district. While she said she believes vaccinations are helpful for children's health in general and considers the contest a novel way of getting the message across, she questioned why the district decided a contest was needed.

"What it said to me was that they must not have very good success in getting parents to have their children inoculated," she said.

Orange County Health Director Rosemary Summers said the contest was devised as an incentive to encourage families to follow immunization recommendations.

"The lowest immunization rates are amongst those adolescents that get busy and don't keep up with going for immunization," Summers said. "We had two meningococcal deaths in young adults in the last 18 months. One day they were fine, and the next day they were dead. This is a serious disease with serious consequences. Our goal is to make sure that there are no children that die from this disease, if we can help it."

Some parents object to linking immunizations to children's desire for electronics. Summers said parents must give their permission before children can receive immunization.

"It just so happens that this time, we have some incentives to offer," she said. "It is still parental-controlled. There's no parent that will be forced to give their child the vaccine if they did not want to do so."

"Parents have to be a part of this decision to get a child immunized," she continued. "When they go to a physician, we also encourage them to go to their primary care physician to be immunized. So physicians are required, as we are, to counsel parents about vaccines and side effects before they vaccinate."

Summers, however, acknowledged that adolescents 16 and older could sign for immunizations themselves.

Besides parents in the area, the contest has drawn the attention of people outside the state, particularly groups wary of the effects of vaccinations. One letter to the CHCCS board came from a mother in Maryland whose daughter died after receiving the HPV vaccine.

Durham County has adopted a more low-key approach to ensure its students get a booster dose of the required Tdap vaccine. It is providing about 300 doses of the vaccine free to eligible students

The Durham County Health Department said the free doses are meant as a bridge to help parents caught unaware that the county now requires students entering the sixth grade to produce proof of immunization. But the department said the free vaccination program is unlikely to continue next year.