The DTM&H (Diploma in Tropical Medicine & Hygiene) is a postgraduate qualification for doctors who work, or intend to work, in resource-limited tropical settings or in global and humanitarian health. From 2024 the UK (Independent) DTM&H examination has been run by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, having previously sat with the Royal College of Physicians of London. The 2026 examination is online, taken in a single day, and open only to doctors who have completed an approved course. This guide covers who now runs it, the eligibility rules, the format and fee, the syllabus weighting, and how to prepare.
What the DTM&H is and who sits it
The DTM&H is a postgraduate medical award that signals relevant, structured training in tropical medicine and hygiene to employers — NGOs, humanitarian organisations and tropical-region posts. Most candidates are preparing for, or are already working in, the tropics, and the qualification is designed to make a doctor more knowledgeable, effective and resilient in those settings. For doctors heading into humanitarian or tropical-region work it is often a prerequisite or a strong signal to employers, and the structured course is as valuable as the certificate itself.
Who runs it now, and what changed
Since 2024 the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries has run the UK (Independent) DTM&H, taking over from the Royal College of Physicians of London. The most practical consequence for 2026 candidates is format: the exam is now delivered online, a shift from the older in-person model.
Eligibility: choosing a course
You cannot sit the DTM&H without completing an approved course of roughly 250 hours of teaching and self-directed learning, and the route you choose shapes your life for a term. The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine run intensive, immersive 13-week courses that suit doctors who can step out of clinical work. The Glasgow and Sheffield courses run part-time over around six months, blending online teaching with face-to-face microscopy days, and suit those continuing to work; the two collaborate on shared online tutorials. The MSF Global Health and Humanitarian Medicine course adds a humanitarian focus, and Nagasaki University and courses approved by the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene also qualify. Other courses may be approved if a detailed syllabus and learning hours are provided.
The microscopy requirement
A minimum of 12 hours of microscopy and practical parasitology teaching is mandatory for eligibility, and it is not incidental. You are expected to prepare and read thick and thin blood films for malaria, identify the major Plasmodium species and estimate parasitaemia, and examine stool, urine, CSF and sputum for ova, cysts and parasites. Most candidates find this the least familiar and most practice-dependent part of the whole diploma, so the laboratory days matter.
The 2026 exam: date, format and fee
The 2026 examination is online, on Wednesday 27 May 2026, from 09:30 to 17:30 GMT, and consists of four papers. The fee is £570, paid to the WSA at application and separate from your course fee. Applications close on 10 March 2026. Confirm the current details on the WSA page before applying. Last reviewed June 2026.
What the syllabus weights
The examination is weighted roughly 60% Clinical Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, 25% Preventative Medicine and International Public Health, and 15% Non-Communicable Diseases of importance in the tropics and sub-tropics, with maternal and child health sitting within these areas. Within the clinical majority, expect malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and its co-infections, enteric fevers and diarrhoeal disease, the major neglected tropical diseases such as schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis and the filariases, arboviral infections such as dengue, severe febrile illness, snakebite and envenomation, and acute malnutrition. The public-health quarter covers water, sanitation and hygiene, immunisation, outbreak detection and control, and health systems in low-resource settings. Travel health and emergency, disaster and humanitarian medicine round out the breadth. Because the breadth is so wide, examiners reward the candidate who can reason from epidemiology and first principles — likely pathogens by region, exposure and incubation period — rather than one who has memorised isolated facts.
Pass rates
The WSA does not routinely publish a headline DTM&H pass rate. Preparation quality is driven mainly by the approved course and by microscopy practice rather than by a single examinable threshold.
How to prepare
The approved course is mandatory and does most of the heavy lifting, so engage fully with its tutorials and microscopy days. Build and read films repeatedly, because diagnostic parasitology is a distinct, examinable skill that rewards hands-on practice. Revise broad clinical infectious diseases and tropical public health together, since the papers weight both heavily, and consolidate with applied question practice across the syllabus. One practical note: the digital question-bank market for the DTM&H is unusually thin, so structured practice is worth seeking out deliberately. Give microscopy and parasitology disproportionate practice relative to its share of teaching time, because it is the component furthest from most doctors' day-to-day work and the hardest to cram in the final weeks.
Where iatroX fits
The DTM&H has very few dedicated digital question banks, which is one reason structured practice is hard to find. iatroX offers a DTM&H bank, on iatroX's subscription (£29/month or £99/year), built on the same five priorities applied across the platform: a Socratic tutor that rebuilds the reasoning behind a miss; questions mapped to the DTM&H syllabus; spaced repetition; adaptive sequencing that returns your weak areas; and a mobile app for revising on the move.
Common questions
Do I need a course to sit the DTM&H? Yes — an approved course of about 250 hours, plus at least 12 hours of microscopy, is an eligibility requirement.
Is the 2026 exam in person? No — it is online, on 27 May 2026.
Who runs it now? The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, since 2024.
Is iatroX's DTM&H bank free? Not in full — the bank is on iatroX's subscription (£29/month or £99/year), with free sample questions to try first.