Hackettstown 11-Year-Old Runner-Up in Vaccination Video Contest

The next time you want to put off getting vaccinated, remember Riley Barry's video.

The 11-year-old Hackettstown student was a first place runner-up in a New Jersey contest, "Protect Me With 3",  on the importance of vaccines to the well-being of children and adolescents. Youngsters were asked to create original 30-second videos about one of the three vaccines, upon which they would be judged.

Barry won his runner-up standing in the 11-14 age category for a video he completed on the pertussis vaccine. The video is featured on the "Protect" site and on Youtube.

Pertussis, also known as "whooping cough," is highly contagious, according to the Center for Disease Control.

The disease causes violent coughing fits that make it hard to breathe, and it can be fatal in unvaccinated children, and particularly babies under a year old, the CDC said.

Pertussis is just one of the diseases that can be prevented by vaccine that was spotlighted in the contest. The others included tetanus, meningococcal, cervical and anal cancers, and genital warts.

The contest, launched in collaboration with the Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern New Jersey and the New Jersey Department of Health, sought to raise awareness in children and teens about taking control of their health and about the importance of youth immunizations.