REPORT OF THE 10^th ICMM INTERNATIONAL COURSE FOR
HEALTH SUPPORT IN SAHARAN ENVIRONMENT

The 10^th ICMM International Course for Health Support in Saharan Environment was organized by Tunisian General Directorate of Military Health and placed under the Patronage of HE the Minister of the National Defense during the period March 07-11, 2022, in Tozeur (South of Tunisia).

This course was organized for the first time in March 2009 by decision of the 37^th ICMM General Assembly held in May 2007 in Tunis (Tunisia). It has become a regular meeting for the military health personnel of the member states, with a scientific content always evolving thanks to the collaboration with the faculty of medicine of Tunis and the Pasteur Institute of Tunis with the support of the ICMM General Secretariat and the different Tunisian Armies’ Staff.

The scientific and cultural program, now well established, has always given pride of place to the practical workshops (two-thirds of the hourly volume). A special place was allocated to the survival workshop in the Saharan environment.

The scientific program was articulated in 5 modules covering the pathologies related to the heat, the pathologies related to the environment, the scorpionic envenomations and snake bites, the role of the armies’ health service in Saharan environment and the initiation training to cutaneous leishmaniasis. Lectures and field activities were given in French or English, with good simultaneous translation into both languages.

The 19 students were physicians, nurses and logisticians coming from Algeria (2), Austria (2),Bahrain (2), Burkina Faso (2), Germany (2), Jordan (1), Qatar (4), United Kingdom (1), and Tunisia (3). The lecturers and evaluators came from France (1) and Tunisia (18).

The course was perfectly organized and the organizers did not spare any efforts to facilitate the arrival of the participants and the lecturers to this remote region of Tunisia by assisting them since their arrival on Tunisian soil until their departure back home. Air assets were provided by Tunisian armed forces for the purposes of medical evacuation during the field exercise and for the possible needs of real health support in case of an accident.

The quality of the program content was extremely high and there were many opportunities for the audience to become actively involved, thanks to the excellent instructional technique of the instructors and the practical exercises. Evaluation forms were submitted after each conference to evaluate all aspects of teaching. They were analyzed by the evaluation committee in order to improve the quality of the next sessions of the course.

The organizing committee hopes that the participants will relay the most important lessons learned as well as their experience gained from the practical exercises to their superiors and that they will recommend this course to other military or civilian health personnel in their countries. It is also looking forward to the active participation of candidates from different ICMM member countries in the 11^th session to be held in the south of Tunisia during the period from 06 to 10 November 2023.