Problem using META tag refresh for page re-directs

I have been using the code below to do my page redirects for a year and a half with good results. Recently, some users have reported to me that the actual code is being partially displayed to the screen, and the re-direct is not occurring. It is as if the server stops serving the page before it is complete. Sometimes the problem can be corrected by the user just doing a manual refresh in their browser. Is anyone else that uses META tag re-directs having this problem? Anyone know what the solution might be? Thanks. Kirk echo("<HTML><HEAD><META HTTP-EQUIV=\"refresh\" CONTENT=\"$delay;url=$url\">< /HEAD><BODY BGCOLOR=#ffffff>$message</BODY></HTML>");