Dr. Nihad Salifu is a pediatric oncologist who hails from Kumbungu in the northern region of Ghana. She is head of the pediatric oncology unit she helped to establish at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital.
Salifu completed her basic medical degree, MBChB, at the University for Development Studies in Tamale, Ghana. She specialized in general pediatrics at the West African College of Physicians and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra. Noting the scarcity of expertise in pediatric oncology in Ghana at the time, she embarked on a journey to Tata Memorial Hospital to study pediatric oncology from 2016-17. She further enrolled in the pediatric oncology fellowship program at the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons where she graduated in 2021.
During her pediatric residency training, she aimed to sub-specialize in pediatric oncology because she quickly recognised the urgent need to bridge the survival gap in childhood cancers between high-income and low-income countries. It was troubling that the mortality rate among children with cancer was very high, although this was not surprising considering that there were only two pediatric oncologists in Ghana before 2015. More than 70% of children are presented with advanced stages of cancer and this prompted a need to broaden the scope of her knowledge and skills to include interventions beyond the clinical environment in the hospital. To reach this goal, she identified that research, advocacy, and leadership skills were the tools needed to successfully navigate that path and the Global Child Health program was the best suited to provide these skills.
She was awarded the most outstanding staff award in the Greater Accra Region in 2023 and at the National Level in the same year. Her research interests include childhood cancer epidemiology and supportive care in childhood cancer, especially in nutrition and pain management.
Hometown: Kumbungu, Northern Region, Ghana
Education:
Fellowship in Pediatric Oncology - Ghana College of Physicians, (2021)
Certificate Pediatric Oncology - Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai (2017)
Membership in Paediatrics and Child Health - Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons (2013)
Membership in Paediatrics - West African College of Physicians (2013)
Medical degree: MBChB - University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana (2007)
BSc Human Biology - University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana (2003)
Publications:
Salifu N, Segbefia CI, Alhassan Y, Renner LA, Tette EMA. Short-term chemotherapy-related complications and undernutrition in children diagnosed with cancer at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana: A prospective cohort study. PLoS One 2024 Mar 28;19(3):e0301208. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301208. PMID: 38547211; PMCID: PMC10977704.
Salifu N, Segbefia CI, Tette EMA, Alhassan Y, Renner LA. Nutritional status at diagnosis of childhood cancer in Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana. Health Sciences Investigative Journal. December 2022
Salifu N, Narula G, Prasad M, Biswas S, Kelkar R, Banavali S. Correlation between multidrug- resistant bacteria colonization and bloodstream infections in children with hematolymphoid malignancies in a tertiary cancer center in India (2020). Indian J Med Paediatr Oncol