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  1. Tropical medicine

    Tropical medicine doctors treat patients with a range of tropical infections including malaria and hepatitis. They diagnose, investigate and manage imported infection.

    Training usually starts with a five year first degree in medicine. You’ll then complete two years of foundation training, two years of core training (CT1-2) and two years of specialty training in combined infection (ST3-4). Following that there’s three years of specialty training in Tropical Medicine (ST5-7). This period of training will include completing your royal college exams. Length of training can vary according to your circumstances.
    Doctors may work up to 48 hours a week. The working hours may sometimes extend beyond the normal working day to include early mornings, evenings and weekends. You’ll first earn a salary when you start your foundation training after medical school. The basic salary ranges from £29,384 to £34,012. Once you start your specialty training as a doctor in tropical medicine employed by the NHS, you can expect to earn a salary of at least £40,257, which can increase to between £84,559 and £114,003 as a consultant.
    You'll need excellent communication skills to manage a wide range of relationships with colleagues, and patients and their families. You'll be emotionally resilient, have excellent problem-solving and diagnostic skills and work well in teams and under pressure. You'll also be very organised for the benefit of patients.
    There are a small number of training places. Tropical medicine trainees dual train with either internal medicine or medical microbiology/medical virology. You could specialise or conduct research in areas such as paediatric tropical medicine, teach medical students or postgraduate students in training or get involved in research at universities, the NHS or private sector.
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