Islam later received higher education in the field of Tropical medicine and hygiene in the United Kingdom.

[2] After passing MBBS, Rafiqul Islam joined the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh and retired from this institution in 2000.

When cholera spread in the refugee camps of West Bengal in India during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, only therapeutic (intravenous) fluid was given to the vein as treatment.

Besides, Bangladeshi non-government organization BRAC played the role of spreading food saline to the remote areas of Bangladesh.

A large janaza was performed and he was buried on the same day in his home village of Malipara being laid to rest next to his late parents.