[Missed malignant melanoma: legal considerations].

Malignant melanoma may be missed both clinically and histopathologically. The appearance of metastases after local excision of a skin lesion which was not recognized as melanoma indicates a diagnostic error. In a lawsuit three things have to be proven: that the doctor has behaved negligently, that the patient has been damaged and that there is a causal relation between the two.

Avian influenza A virus (H7N7) associated with human conjunctivitis and a fatal case of acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza A viruses of subtypes H5 and H7 are the causative agents of fowl plague in poultry. Influenza A viruses of subtype H5N1 also caused severe respiratory disease in humans in Hong Kong in 1997 and 2003, including at least seven fatal cases, posing a serious human pandemic threat. Between the end of February and the end of May 2003, a fowl plague outbreak occurred in The Netherlands.