Working with Bernie Mac Foundation to Promote Awareness of Sarcoidosis
Sarcoidosis Awareness Day Heading link
UI Health’s Dr. Nadera J. Sweiss, founder and director of UI Health’s Bernie Mac Sarcoidosis Translational Advanced Research (STAR) Center, has been working in partnership with the Bernie Mac Foundation for Sarcoidosis and the Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research to have April 21, 2023 proclaimed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot as Sarcoidosis Awareness Day in Chicago.
Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disease that often attacks multiple organs, particularly the lungs and lymph nodes. The disease disproportionately affects African Americans and often goes undiagnosed. Chicago comedian and actor Bernie Mac was diagnosed with Sarcoidosis in 1983 and lived with the disease for decades. Mac belief that he could make a difference regarding a cure for Sarcoidosis and helped establish the Bernie Mac Foundation for Sarcoidosis in 2006. He died in 2008 of a cardiac arrest after being hospitalized for pneumonia, though it is likely that sarcoidosis contributed to his death.
The STAR Center at UI Health is dedicated to reducing health disparities among sarcoidosis patients in Chicago, providing comprehensive care for patients with all forms of sarcoidosis. Since its establishment in 2012 the center has seen a 70 percent increase in the number of sarcoidosis patients visiting the hospital for treatment.