American Social Health Association Loses CDC Contract for HIV/AIDS, STD Hotlines
The Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based not-for-profit organization American Social Health Association on Monday lost a bid for a federal contract with CDC for its largest program, which includes two national telephone hotlines that provide information about sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, the Durham Herald-Sun reports. ASHA's CDC National AIDS and STD Hotlines -- which provided three-fourths of the organization's revenue for the fiscal year ending June 2003 -- last year logged about 700,000 calls from individuals asking for information on prevention, testing and treatment of the diseases. ASHA also runs several other telephone hotlines. John Allen, ASHA president and CEO, said that the organization will have to reduce the number of its employees because of the closure. Currently, about 150 of the organization's 250 employees work in the hotline call center, according to an ASHA spokesperson. The not-for-profit organization has been running the hotlines since the mid-1980s and will continue running them for the next three months, according to the Herald-Sun. ASHA has other government contracts, including one for which it is a subcontractor to NIH, according to the Herald-Sun. The organization lost competitive bidding for the hotlines contract to the for-profit company Pearson Government Solutions, according to the Herald-Sun (Bonner, Durham Herald-Sun, 9/1).
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