Contact: Will Sansom, (210) 567-2579

This photo of the Alamo in blue light represented Texas in the 2007 World Diabetes Day Monument Lighting Challenge. Photo courtesy of Michael Angelo.
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SAN ANTONIO (Nov. 14, 2008) — For the second autumn in a row, the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, the American Diabetes Association, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the University Health System turned a San Antonio landmark blue to bring attention to the war on diabetes.


On World Diabetes Day Nov. 14 at the Alamo, the partners ceremonially bathed the historic mission in beams of blue light. Blue is the official color of the annual United Nations World Diabetes Day.

Type 2 diabetes prevalent among South Texans
“San Antonio, with its alarmingly high rate of type 2 diabetes in young people, sits on the fault line of the diabetes earthquake in this country,” said Daniel E. Hale, M.D., professor and pediatric endocrinologist at the Health Science Center. “Lighting the Alamo blue is a reminder that, while we have more programs and support in place than ever before and we are grateful for those, we still have much to do in the fight against this South Texas plague.”

Alamo joins 200 other famous landmarks in blue light
After city, county and state officials read proclamations of World Diabetes Day, the Alamo joined the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Sydney Opera House and 200 other world landmarks in going blue.

The Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT) granted permission to light the Alamo blue. The local coalition thanks Dianne MacDiarmid, chair of the DRT Alamo Committee; David Stewart, director of the Alamo; and Laura Garza, events coordinator, for this goodwill gesture.

Bexar County has twice the national rate of diabetes cases
According to local statistics, Bexar County has twice the number of diabetes cases than the national average. An estimated 240,000 individuals — 14 percent of the 1.4 million population of San Antonio — live with diabetes. It is estimated than an additional 68,000 people may have diabetes and not know it. In addition, the number of Hispanics with diabetes is 82,518 and the number of African Americans with diabetes is 28,170.

More than 1 million Texans are living with diabetes and an additional 440,000 are estimated to have undiagnosed diabetes.

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The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $668 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $16.3 billion biosciences and health care sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $36 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 24,000 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and other health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, dentistry and many other fields. For more information, visit www.uthscsa.edu.