A WEEK IN FRANKFURT AM MAIN
By Sarah Maitho
26.11.2018, Montag
Today we had ward rounds in the Infectious diseases department. Last week we had a patient with a mysterious infection causing spondylitis of the thoracic vertebrae for months. He had a travel history to Iran in January and later to Romania in June. It was really a mystery to the ID experts and they couldn’t determine from which country he picked the infection and what exact infection it was. Samples for microbiology were sent to a laboratory in France. The results showed that it was brucellosis. A textbook disease up till now, but the irregular undulating fever should have rang a bell!
27.11.2018 Dienstag
Today’s highlight was a meeting at the microbiology department, where students meet to discuss research they’ve been working on. To be honest, it was quite complex for a medical student since the paper entailed molecular microbiology!
So why was it a highlight? There was chocolate cake with ginger in it!! And the Germans don’t play when it comes to pastries.
28.11.2018 Mittwoch
We started the day at the microbiology lab once again. We learned how to read blood and tissue cultures (including antimicrobial susceptibility), which is done both from plates and using technology. The technology they use to read the cultures is the BACTEC machine, a semi-automated system. The machine provides conditions necessary for culturing blood while screening for bacteria, yeast and fungi that may be present. It can read up to 100 culture bottles at a go.
We spent the evening at the Public Health office within the town. Now, this was very exciting for a public health lover, that it needs its own separate article (this will be a link to the article).
29.11.2018 Donnerstag
Ward round in the ID department.
There was an interesting case of a middle aged woman who has been on long term immunosuppressive treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. During the course of her therapy, she developed cutaneous lesions on her legs, and was treated for a protracted time in the dermatology department with no improvement. She was then referred to the ID department for further examination. The tests revealed that immunosuppressive therapy made the patient susceptible to an atypical Mycobacterium species called Mycobacterium chelonae causing cutaneous lesions on her legs.
Later in the evening; Christmas market at the Romer in the city.
There is an interesting drink they take during Christmas time: hot wine (Gluhwein). Hot wine is red wine heated with spices (mostly cinnamon) and sugar in it and drunk out of colourful tea cups/mugs. It helps to keep warm during winter time. Children and those who don’t take alcohol have the option of hot orange juice.
Figure 3 Gluhwein and a salted Pretzel / Figure 4 Hot orange juice
Another interesting dish is the green sauce (Grune sosse); made of milk products and 7 herbs; taken commonly with potatoes and boiled eggs. It is unique to Frankfurt, together with apple wine (apfelwein). The most famous myth is that green sauce was Johann Woflgang von Goethe’s (born in Frankfurt) favourite dish, invented by his mother.
I would say that it can be used as a sauce for other different dishes. Absolutely delicious!!
Our tour guide for the evening and lovely host was Lena from the UFH. Thank you, Lena.
30.11.2018 Freitag
We are off to The Hague (Den Haag), Netherlands to visit my cousin and his family.
You never know the preciousness of a minute until you have to catch a bus in Germany!