Dr. Akosua Mensah

Dr. Akosua Mensah is a specialist internist at CHU Sylvanus Olympio in Lomé, one of West Africa's most important university teaching hospitals. Over a career spanning more than 14 years, Dr. Mensah has built a practice focused on the diagnosis and long-term management of non-communicable diseases, which now account for a rising share of the disease burden seen at Togo's principal referral hospital alongside endemic infectious conditions.

Dr. Mensah trained entirely within the Togolese university system and has chosen to remain at CHU Sylvanus Olympio, where she contributes both to direct patient care and to the training of the next generation of Togolese internists. Her patient panel includes individuals with complex co-morbidities — particularly patients managing diabetes alongside hypertension or chronic kidney disease — as well as those with complications from infectious conditions such as severe malaria and HIV. She consults in French, her primary clinical language, and also communicates effectively with patients in Ewe and Kabyé, serving both the coastal Ewe-speaking communities of Lomé and patients from the northern Kara region.

Dr. Mensah completed her undergraduate medical education at the Université de Lomé's Faculté des Sciences de la Santé, where she graduated with her Doctorat en Médecine. She subsequently pursued specialisation in internal medicine, earning the Diplôme d'Études Spécialisées en Médecine Interne, a structured post-graduate qualification delivered through CHU Sylvanus Olympio under the academic oversight of the Université de Lomé. Her specialty training included supervised clinical rotations in cardiology, nephrology, endocrinology, and infectious disease, equipping her to manage the complex, multi-system presentations that characterise the inpatient internal medicine ward at a major West African teaching hospital. She has since participated in regional continuing medical education programmes supported by the OCEAC (Organisation de Coordination pour la lutte contre les Endémies en Afrique Centrale) and WHO-AFRO.

Dr. Mensah's primary clinical focus is the management of non-communicable diseases in the context of Togo's evolving epidemiological landscape. She has developed particular expertise in diabetes care, managing patients from initial diagnosis through insulin initiation and complication screening, including diabetic nephropathy, retinopathy screening referrals, and foot care counselling. She also oversees complex hypertension management, including hypertensive emergencies and hypertension in pregnancy in liaison with obstetric colleagues.

Beyond non-communicable disease, Dr. Mensah manages the overlap between infectious and chronic disease that is especially common in Togo, including HIV patients with opportunistic infections, patients with tuberculosis and concurrent diabetes, and those recovering from complicated malaria with residual anaemia or renal impairment. Procedurally, she is skilled in diagnostic lumbar puncture for meningitis evaluation, pleural aspiration, intravenous fluid management protocols, and ECG interpretation. She supervises junior residents in these procedures as part of CHU Sylvanus Olympio's internal medicine training programme.

Dr. Mensah has contributed clinical data to multi-centre surveys on the prevalence and control rates of hypertension and diabetes in urban Lomé, conducted in partnership with the Programme National de Lutte contre les Maladies Non-Transmissibles and international academic collaborators. She participates in departmental case review meetings at CHU Sylvanus Olympio and has co-authored clinical audit reports examining insulin access and glycaemic control outcomes among diabetic inpatients. Her scholarly contribution reflects the broader orientation of clinicians at West African public hospitals towards applied clinical research that directly informs care protocols and national health policy.

CHU Sylvanus Olympio receives patients from across the West African sub-region, including Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso, and Dr. Mensah's internal medicine service is a common destination for patients with chronic disease requiring specialist assessment not available at primary or district hospital level. She also consults for members of Togo's diaspora community — particularly Togolese-French and Togolese-German patients — who return to Lomé and require continuity of care for their managed conditions or specialist opinions on diagnoses made abroad. Consultations are conducted primarily in French, with the ability to communicate in Ewe for patients from the southern coastal belt and in Kabyé for those originating from the northern region. Patients wishing to arrange appointments should contact CHU Sylvanus Olympio's outpatient coordination service.

Dr. Mensah is recognised by her colleagues at CHU Sylvanus Olympio for her commitment to teaching and her patient-centred approach to the management of complex chronic disease in a resource-limited setting. She has received departmental commendation for her role in improving diabetes care protocols in the hospital's internal medicine wards and was acknowledged by the Togolese national non-communicable disease programme for her participation in community awareness campaigns targeting diabetes and hypertension prevention in the Golfe and Maritime regions of Togo.