My name is Mohammed Salieu Ibrahim. On completion of my secondary school education in 1962, I proceeded to the National School of Hygiene where I spent three years pursuing the Royal Society of Health Diploma for health superintendents in West Africa. I completed this in 1965 and started work as a Grade 11 public health inspector with the Ministry of Health.

Mr Mohamed S Ibrahim, Manager, Environmental Health Services

I was later posted to the Small Pox Eradication/Measles Control Programme in 1967. The programme was primarily responsible for the eradication of the small pox disease, which had been a scourge in Sierra Leone at that time.

In 1970, the first of its kind out break of Lassa fever in Sierra Leone was detected. To combat this, the Government requested the help of 5 specialists from the Communicable Disease Control Center in Atlanta, USA and subsequently, the Endemic Disease Control Unit (EDCU) was set up. I was only one of the two public health officers who volunteered to work with the team.

I was also put in charge of the Yellow Fever Control team within the unit in 1977. My work with this team took me to the Kenema/Kailahun axis, where I spent close to year in brining the disease under control.

In 1980, I joined the TB Control Program and it was also during this time that I became a permanent staff of the EDCU.

I was part of the start up team of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) and we were able to lift the vaccination coverage for the five childhood diseases from 6% to over 75%.

In 1997, I was moved from the EPI Program to the Environmental Health Division where I was made the Manager to date.