“Black is beautiful”, is a Ghanaian entrepreneur’s million-dollar business plan. Grace Amey-Oben has built a business empire by fighting the use of skin-bleaching products and teaching young people how to appreciate and care for black African beauty. VOA’s Carolyn Turner has more.

Lecture Overview Ninety percent of the cells humans carry are microbes. Only a few of the bacteria we encounter are pathogenic and can cause disease. Pathogens possess the inherent ability to cross anatomic barriers or breach other host defenses that limit the microbes that make up our normal flora. A significant part of human evolution has gone into developing ways to thwart microbial intrusion. In turn, microbes have come up with clever ways to avoid and circumvent host defenses but human — microbe interactions is still a “Work in Progress.” When we study pathogens we learn as much about ourselves as we do about them. Helicobacter pylori lives in the human stomach. It causes gastritis, ulcer disease and even gastric cancer. Some H. pylori can inject a protein, CagA, into gastric epithelial cells. CagA interacts with the tight junctions that bind cells together and with signaling molecules affecting motility and proliferation. CagA is associated with ulcer disease and cancer but we don’t understand how it works to favor malignancy. Not long ago in history most …

We have trained close to 1,000 health care workers on understanding and managing COVID-19 disease. Dr. Richard Lessells, ID specialist of Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine and KRISP at UKZN has been training health care workers since January 2020. The UKZN Coronavirus War room has been instrumental in working with the NHLS and the National Department of Health in this important activity in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. All of this work was done pro-bono and we do need your support to continue. More information,

A strain of flu virus spreading in Chinese pigs has shown it can also infect humans, suggesting that another pathogen with pandemic potential waits in the wings behind the coronavirus. The flu strain that jumped to humans has become predominant among pigs across China since 2016, according to a team of researchers that includes George Gao Fu, head of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers based their findings on surveillance studies conducted in 10 provinces from 2011 through 2018. Influenza is one of the most frequent causes of pandemics, which occur when a new infectious disease that no one has immunity to sweeps around the world. Pigs are known to harbor flu viruses that can occasionally infect workers they come into contact with, creating a risk of wider outbreaks. Called G4 EA H1N1, the swine flu strain bears genes similar to those in the virus that caused the 2009 flu pandemic, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a research journal. Tests found the virus …

A doctor unintentionally talks smack about a man’s mama during a medical consultation. About Key & Peele: Key & Peele showcases the fearless wit of stars Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele as the duo takes on everything from “Gremlins 2” to systemic racism. With an array of sketches as wide-reaching as they are cringingly accurate, the pair has created a bevy of classic characters, including Wendell, the players of the East/West Bowl and President Obama’s Anger Translator. Subscribe to Comedy Central: Watch more Comedy Central: Follow Key & Peele: Facebook: Twitter: Watch full episodes of Key & Peele: Follow Comedy Central: Twitter: Facebook: Instagram: #KeyandPeele