Not so long ago, there was a certain image associated with being vegetarian. It usually involved Birkenstock sandals, lentil loaf and an agenda.
There still are plenty of all three in the meatless movement, but a growing number of Americans are finding they can have cauliflower and kale at the center of the plate without a side of ideology.

Chinese researchers reporting in The Lancet on Thursday confirmed poultry as a source of H7N9 flu among humans but said they found no evidence of person-to-person transmission.
A probe into four cases of human H7N9 influenza in eastern Zhejiang province determined that all the patients had been exposed to poultry, either through their occupation or through visiting so-called wet poultry markets.

Health officials in Somalia are rolling out a new five-in-one vaccine for children that they say will save thousands of lives.
Meanwhile, in Abu Dhabi Thursday, global health leaders unveiled a six-year plan to eradicate polio. Close to three-quarters of the plan's projected $5.5 billion cost has already been pledged.

China's state news agency says one person died and 20 others were sickened after a chef mistakenly added pesticide instead of a sauce as he was making lunch.
Xinhua News Agency said in a brief dispatch Thursday that the chef was among those who fell ill after eating the lunch at a construction site in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The others who were sickened were migrant workers. Two people were in critical condition.

U.S. regulators announced a plan Wednesday to test a handheld device that can scan drugs and report within seconds whether they are real or fake, in a bid to help the fight against malaria.
Counterfeit and substandard malaria drugs are a key concern in many parts of the world where the mosquito-borne disease is a problem, and finding a low-cost way to test drugs in the field would be a boon to public health efforts, experts said.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday he has "a problem" with his justice minister, who sparked a row by accusing Germany of embryo traffic and experimentation.
"Regarding Minister (Jaroslaw) Gowin, I admit there's a problem," Tusk told reporters, saying he was annoyed by the remarks.

England aims to inject a million youngsters with measles vaccine following a surge in cases of the potentially fatal disease, public health authorities said Thursday.
The rise in cases appears to be due to a period in the late 1990s and early 2000s when fears over a discredited link between the MMR vaccine and autism were at their height, Public Health England (PHE) said.

Greek police said Wednesday it had dismantled a network that had smuggled assisted reproduction treatments from Turkey and illegally sold human eggs.
Eleven suspects, including two clinic managers and two pharmaceutical company owners, were detained, senior police official Theodoros Floratos told reporters.

International experts probing China's deadly H7N9 bird flu virus said Wednesday it was "one of the most lethal influenza viruses" seen so far and concluded that the likely source of infection was poultry.
China had confirmed 108 cases and 22 deaths since the first the infections were announced on March 31, with a higher proportion of cases in older people.

A group of independent experts has slammed Britain's cosmetic surgery industry for not protecting patients adequately and is calling for stricter controls in the aftermath of a breast implant scandal in Europe last year that left tens of thousands of women with cheap silicone implants prone to ruptures. A top British health official, meanwhile, signaled support for their recommendations.
In a review of how cosmetic procedures are regulated, the group said all skin fillers should be available by prescription only and that all practitioners — from surgeons to aestheticians who inject Botox — must be properly qualified. The expert group, commissioned by the U.K. Department of Health, also called for the creation of a registry of implants and other medical devices and an ombudsman for private health care, among other suggestions.
