Rafiuk Cosmos Yakubu

Dr. Rafiuk Cosmos Yakubu is a Senior Paediatrician Specialist at the Tamale Teaching Hospital and Senior Lecturer in Paediatrics at the University for Development Studies, School of Medicine in Tamale, Ghana. He has worked as a doctor for the past 14 years and as a paediatrician for the past seven years.

He developed a special interest in caring for children with asthma, who he realized were not being managed according to international guidelines without a dedicated clinic for children with asthma and no follow up care. It became his aim to contribute in improving child health in the northern part of the country, to introduce such a clinic where these children can access internationally recommended care from diagnosis to management and also promote teaching and research in child health.

Dr. Yakubu has mentored and supported six junior doctors who have now qualified as Paediatricians and added to the work force to support child health in the Northen part of the country. He founded an asthma clinic where he employs spirometry to aid diagnosis and has instituted evidence-based care involving the use of inhaled steroids as controller therapy, and the development and use of personalized asthma action plans and periodic reviews to ensure compliance.

Dr. Yakubu has actively sought to improve his ability to conduct research to contribute to knowledge that improve child health. This has led participation in several international studies, such as the Achieving Control of Asthma in Children in Africa (ACACIA) and Children’s Air Pollution Profiles in Africa (CAPPA) studies, and conducting his own research that led to seven published papers in peer reviewed journals (access here via Google Scholar). Through the hard work of the head of department and with support from his hospital, Dr. Yakubu was recently granted accreditation for a residency program in Paediatrics. As the postgraduate coordinator for this program, he aims to ensure his residents receive world class training in Paediatrics and to give them mentorship in research so they would become the very best Paediatricians and researchers they can be.