Jan 9 2007
Millions of educational brochures and pamphlets that CDC distributes nationally to health departments and the public remain "locked away and in limbo" after a warehouse contractor ended operations over financial problems, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
MCRB Service Bureau on Dec. 29, 2006, closed a warehouse in Elkridge, Md., a move that left CDC unable to distribute brochures and pamphlets on 800 health issues.
In November 2006, the warehouse handled 9,150 orders for 490,000 individual brochures and pamphlets, according to MCRB.
CDC has told individuals who seek to order brochures through the agency Web site or by telephone that they cannot place orders for at least two weeks.
Officials for MCRB informed CDC on Dec. 26, 2006, that the company would end operations on Dec. 29, 2006.
CDC had hoped that by Wednesday MCRB would reach an agreement to sell the warehouse, but the agency late Monday learned of a possible delay in the sale.
Judith Aguilar, acting director of division of health information dissemination at CDC, said that the agency will implement an emergency plan to have a different contractor temporarily distribute the brochures and pamphlets.
The delay in distribution of the brochures and pamphlets likely will last a few weeks, CDC officials said.
CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said, "We're taking this seriously and want to move as quickly as we can to remedy this situation" (Young, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1/9).
 This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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