Western Front - 2007 November 9

              FRONT Antibiotic-resistant staph infections on the increase
NEWS
Student Health
Center screens
forpre-diabetic
syndrome
page 7
ART & LIFE
Seattle's Minus
the Bear returns
to Western
page 8
"Honky" author
visits Western
page 10
Western
bicyclist wins
national title
page 11
Men's, women's
basketball
entertain fans at
Viking Jam
page 11
COLUMNIST:
Dining halls are
delish
page14
WEATHER
FRIDAY
MONDAY 48°
HIGH
39°
10W
Source: National Weather Service
Isabelle Dills
THE WESTERN FRONT
What started as a pimple
turned into a nightmare for
Western junior Keiosha Williams,
who suffered from a staph
infection this past summer.
During the end of June,
Williams noticed a small pimple
on the top of her forehead. Then,
she hit her head on her car door.
A week after the car incident,
the pimple increased so much in.
size Williams said she decided
to pop it. That night, she realized
something was wrong.
"My whole head swelled up,"
Williams said. "I looked like a
totally different person."
A different strain of
staph than Williams caught,
called methicillin-resistant
staphylococcus aureus (MRSA),
made recent news due to a Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) press release. According to
the press release, MRS A caused
more than 94,000 infections and
approximately 19,000 deaths in
the United States in 2005.
After her head swelled,
Williams said her dad decided to
take her to the emergency room.
The doctors could not identify
what type of infection it was at
first, but recommended Williams
stay in the hospital overnight.
A culture, taken from the
infected area on Williams' head,
allowed the doctors to identify the
infection as staphylococcus aureus,
Williams said.
According to the CDC Web
site, staphylococcus aureus, or
staph, is a bacteria often found
on the skin and in the nose.
Occasionally, staphylococci
can enter the body, causing an
infection.
Dr. Emily Gibson, director of
Western's Student Health Center,
said the Student Health Center
has seen an increasing number
of MRSA cases in the last three
years.
More than 50 percent of the
Student Health Center's staph
cultures are now MRSA and at
least three to four new MRSA
infections are diagnosed per week,
Gibson said.
Some of the earliest cases
were from students returning from
vacation in Mexico who were
exposed to MRSA while foam
dancing, Gibson said. MRSA then
became more common in athletes,
who experienced regular skin
abrasions due to injury, she said.
Last spring quarter, a Western
student got a staph infection
from an injury she received when
playing soccer on Western's
see STAPH page 16 •
Western honors veterans
photos by Mark Malijan THE WESTERN FRONT
Above: Veterans (from left) jefferey L. Wier, Ken Eiriksson, AI Shaulis and Cordon Anthony listen to veteran Dr.
Michael A. Colson speak during the Veterans Day ceremony Thursday in the Viking Union Multipurpose Room.
Below: Veteran Ron Clapp holds the American flag during the Veterans Day ceremony Thursday afternoon.
Allison Nilton
THE WESTERN FRONT
Four men in bifocals wearing blue uniforms and
hats decorated with medals and-pins sat in the front
row of the Viking Union Multipurpose Room in
complete silence as they listened to the Western Brass
Trio play American ballads at Western's Veterans Day
celebration Thursday.
The men were sitting as still as statues, but
from close up a smile appeared on their faces'as
they listened to the melody of "The Star-Spangled
Banner."
"We shall not forget what they have done," said
Robert Marshall, coordinator of Western's Veteran's
Outreach Center, which hosted the event. "These men
deserve our gratitude."
On stage behind the podium, the veterans stood
at parade rest, with one hand behind their back and
one grasping a flag or a weapon. The men of the
Bellingham American Legion Post 7 presented the
colors at the beginning of the ceremony.
The men of the legion carried flags as they
marched onto the stage in a single-file line. As they
passed by audience members, the veterans in the
crowd sharply put their right hand to their forehead,
see VETERANS page 6 •
Holocaust
survivor
shares
memories
Sarah Gordon
THE WESTERN FRONT
Holocaust survivor Noemi
Ban said she remembers looking
into her mother's eyes for the last
time as she was separated from her
and the rest of her family at the
Auschwitz concentration camp in
the mid-1940s.
An SS Nazi officer carrying
a horse whip sent her mother,
grandmother and young siblings
to the gas chambers, as Ban, from
Budapest, Hungary, was sent to the
camp, she said.
Despite the tragedies Ban
faced as a young woman, she said
she has reasons to continue telling
her story, as she did Thursday to
a full room of Western students,
faculty and Bellingham community
members in Fraser Hall Room 2.
One of these reasons is personal to
her, she said.
"I don't know where the ashes
are scattered in that huge, huge
camp," said Ban, now 85 years old.
"The ashes of my dear ones. I don't
have a grave to go to: So whenever
I speak of them, I feel I give my
love in honoring them."
Ban said she hopes her story
will lead audience members to
see what prejudice, bigotry and
hate can do when it continues
uncontrolled as it did during the
Holocaust.
"It's so inspiring to hear
someone who's been through hell
to be so vivacious and loving about
life," said Western junior Julie
Miller. "I cried only twice."
Ban has spoken in more than
300 different classrooms within
the past couple years, said Ray
Wolpow, The Northwest Center
for Holocaust, Genocide and
see BAN page 5 •