What is Jungle Medicine?
In a diverse environment that has the capacity to be both extremely dangerous and beautiful at once, Jungle Medicine is an interdisciplinary branch of medicine that refers to the practical application of medicine within a jungle environment.
It encompasses a number of sub-specialities such as tropical health, pre-hospital medicine, primary medicine and expedition or wilderness medicine, in combination with the essential non-medical skills required to care for sick or injured people in a jungle environment. As a medic working within a jungle environment, you need to be able to identify that the symptoms presented suggest a tropical disease, and from that evaluation, be able to understand what that means for the person i.e. managing their symptoms or in extreme circumstances CASEVAC (casualty evacuation).
Why is Jungle Medicine needed?
With more people starting to travel, work and explore these distinctive regions across the globe, the need for medics with a unique range of medical and practical skills becomes even more important. As well as being one of the most difficult and extreme terrains in the world, the jungle is also home to a number of dangerous wildlife inhabits, including 17 species of snakes; seven of which can be deadly, plus scorpions, spiders, and other diverse wildlife.
It’s also important to note that population surges, as well as other inter-related factors such as globalisation, climate change and urbanisation, are challenges we need to consider when thinking about and entering a remote and tropical environment. Isolated and exotic locations are often lacking public health infrastructure, which means basic healthcare such as having safe water and adequate sanitation are real risks to the traveller and potentially could contribute to the spread of dangerous infectious diseases upon their return.
What skills do you need to practice Jungle Medicine?
Due to its diverse and challenging location, the practice of medicine within a jungle environment requires a unique set of skills to be able to:
- Navigate
- Create fire and cook
- Build adequate shelter
- Survive and thrive in such an extreme environment
- Provide medical care
- Understand endemic diseases
Who practices Jungle Medicine?
With many tropical and jungle research expeditions and projects taking place in developing countries, where medical facilities are either non-existent or poor, it is vital that there are medical professionals on the ground with the practical skills, knowledge and understanding needed to perform in highly complex and demanding situations.
Alongside the skills already gained from such fields as pre-hospital medicine and primary healthcare, medics will also need to know how to manage envenomation (exposure to a poison or toxin from a bite or sting), have practical survival skills to support both themselves and their party, logistical knowledge and be able to identify and manage symptoms of tropical disease relevant to their environment.
The future of Jungle Medicine
As the environment becomes incrementally more extreme, more accessible to the wider population for exploration, and open to inter-related challenges such as climate change and globalisation, demand is now dictating the need to take a holistic and interdisciplinary approach when thinking about practising medicine in these new and unfamiliar terrains.
The planning and execution of self-care and the care for others are vital lessons to be learnt in this environment – attention to detail is key!
Introducing the World Extreme Medicine Jungle Medicine Course
Due to the importance of this subject and with such growing demand for medical skills in this field, as remote locations are more accessible, we have developed an exciting and comprehensive Jungle Medicine course for all those medical professionals responsible for clients, patients or team members in a sub-tropical or jungle environment.
This course is open and ideal for all Medical and Allied Health Professionals as well as medical students in their final year of study. This interesting subject is explored in great depth by an expert faculty and will provide practical survival skills, an overview of tropical medicine, logistical knowledge and pre-hospital skills required on a jungle expedition that can then be utilised in real-life situations.
The course enables attendees to:
- Increase their knowledge about Jungle Medicine and equip medics with practical survival skills, an overview of tropical medicine, logistical knowledge and pre-hospital skills required on a jungle expedition all while immersed in the environment.
- Acquire and develop specific survival skills for Jungle Medicine and standard operating procedures applicable to a jungle environment
- Develop leadership and decision making skills required when working in resource-limited environments
- Enhance knowledge and skills relating to understanding, diagnosing and treating heat-related illness and hydration
- Improve environmental awareness enabling a greater ability to plan, risk assess and set yourself up for successful expeditions in one of the world’s most challenging climates
Through fully immersive learning, deep in the stunning tropical rainforests of Costa Rica, this action-packed course provides both hands-on practical and theory-based elements and will give you an appreciation of how triple canopy can affect casevac, navigation, planning & execution of care. You’ll learn a range of survival and camp skills that are vitally important, including water treatment and methods of making water potable, minor & major wound care, hydration and how to avoid dehydration. We also teach fundamental skills of how to treat snake bites and other wildlife injuries, plus public health and self-care principles that are crucial in this environment where small blisters or sores can end your travels early if not dealt with properly.
Find out more about our Jungle Medicine course here, and if you need a little more convincing that this is the course for you, read our other Jungle Medicine related blogs which will reaffirm why this course is what you need to #BeExtreme.
Other blogs that may be of interest, include:
Ben has been a Paramedic since 2014 and is a Critical Care Paramedic on the Thames Valley Air Ambulance. With a particular interest in human factors both within pre-hospital medicine and the expedition arena, Ben’s interest in Expedition medicine has seen him take on medic roles on a number of remote expeditions in Canada.
Hannah is an Emergency Medicine Registrar in the East of England, but mostly wishes she was in the mountains. She is a qualified Mountain Leader, and aspirant International Mountain Leader, having been involved in expeditions with school groups for many years.
In her life before medicine, Emma lived in a caravan in Wales, worked as a healthcare assistant, travelled solo around the world having never been on a plane, hiked the Himalayas, studied Geography at Cambridge and volunteered in Nepal, China, India, Sri Lanka and Zambia (Teaching, Tsunami relief and TB hospices). After graduating, she taught in Geneva and undertook an internship at the UN and WHO, where she attended the Human Rights Council and World Health Assembly.
Taryn is a qualified nurse who trained in Australia and spent the first part of her career working as Nursing Officer in the Australian Army. During her time in the military she completed her Master’s in Public Health and Tropical Medicine and began providing healthcare to in complex remote environments including Kenya, Papua New Guinea and remote Australia.
Roger is a Scottish Patient Safety Programme Fellow who trained in the UK, New Zealand and Sweden. He has previously worked for Kent, Surrey and Sussex Helicopter Emergency Medical Service. (HEMS) and now currently instructs on Advanced Trauma, Medical and Paediatric Life Support in the UK and overseas. As an Educational Coordinator for Emergency Medicine at the Scottish Centre for Simulation and Clinical Human Factors he has designed, developed and delivered multiple high-fidelity simulation courses.
Jamie grew up in the wilds of Northumberland, where this endless empty landscape instilled a sense of adventure and a desire to explore every corner of the world and to help others do the same. Believing that travel, endeavour and adventure are the best teachers in the world, Jamie has travelled extensively, but finds that his heart beats hardest in cold and mountainous environments; rather unsurprisingly for a Geordie. This passion for the unknown has taken him from the Deserts of North Africa to the Arctic Tundra of Greenland and Svalbard. An adventure athlete, climber, surfer, runner, mountaineer, he believes in challenging yourself and pushing your limits in every opportunity.
Burjor is both a past consultant dentist for the British Antarctic Survey Medical Unit and a resident expedition dentist for 
Claire is an Emergency Medicine doctor with a passion for expedition and remote medicine. She has provided medical support for expeditions in many environments, but mostly enjoys working in cold & polar regions.
Hugely experienced, John is UK-trained GP, with extensive pre-hospital emergency care experience who moved to New Zealand where he initially worked in rural general practice before and now works in rural emergency departments, in between adventures.
Eoin has been a Paramedic for 13 years and has worked for London’s Air Ambulance for 8 years treating critically ill patients as a Flight Paramedic.
Originally trained as a physiotherapist, Alex went on to study medicine and is now a doctor in the Royal Navy, spending the last few years serving as a Royal Marine Clinician. Having developed a taste for endurance sport, including running through the Amazon for Men’s Fitness Magazine as part of their ultra-marathon team, Alex is no stranger to challenging environments and extreme medicine.
Mohammed and his team at Outward Bound Oman will be running the logistical elements of our Desert Medicine course.
With twenty-two years spent living and travelling extensively across Arabia, Mark brings an incredible knowledge of exploration and an unrivalled knowledge of the area, particularly in Oman. It was his entrepreneurial spirit and passion for exploration and education that led him to set up
Possibly best known for representing his country in both the 2003 Cricket World Cup and the 2003 Rugby World Cup, this former sportsman is now one of Namibia’s leading physicians (he is personal physician of the President of the Republic of Namibia Dr. Hage Geingob) and a well-respected conservationist.
Marlice van Vuuren (née van der Merwe) grew up surrounded by the orphaned and injured animals on her parents’ farm,
Dr. Hoffman qualified as a veterinarian from the world-renowned Onderstepoort Veterinary Faculty of the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Since qualification in 2012, Dr. Hoffman has worked in various disciplines of veterinary science including private practice wildlife and large animal veterinarian, as well as working as a companion animal (cats, dogs and horses)