Prestige Ameritech to open a Global Pandemic Preparedness and Response Center

Prestige Ameritech is turning a vacant, former Kimberly-Clark surgical mask factory into a Global Pandemic Preparedness and Response Center. The 220,000 square foot facility, on 17 acres in North Richland Hills, Texas, will open by January 31, 2010. Besides supplying America’s hospitals with their normal supplies of masks and respirators, the center will help the US and other countries build surgical mask and N95 respirator stockpiles for use during the H1N1 and future pandemics. Stockpiling reduces the likelihood of mask and respirator shortages during global emergencies. America’s hospitals are currently experiencing a pandemic related mask and respirator shortage.

Many of Prestige Ameritech’s 200 employees once worked at the facility when it was operated by Kimberly-Clark. In 2006, Kimberly-Clark closed the factory when it and the rest of America’s major mask makers discontinued making surgical masks in the US. By securing America’s mask supply with American made masks, Prestige Ameritech hopes to create another 200 jobs in the next few years.

“Prestige Ameritech will provide US healthcare systems with a secure, high quality American made surgical mask and respirator supply that cannot be diverted by foreign health agencies during global emergencies,” said Dan Reese, Prestige Ameritech’s founder and CEO.