(Host) Many issues make Iran a global hot spot, including an impasse over nuclear research and the election of a new conservative president.

But inside Iran, this summer's outbreak of cholera has the country's attention and officials fear it could get worse in the fall.

VPR's Steve Zind has traveled in the country last year and again this year and he files this report from Tehran.

(Zind) Iran has had three outbreaks of cholera in the last forty years. This time eleven people have died and about one thousand have been infected. Officials say the disease, a bacterial infection of the intestine that can cause severe diarrhea, was brought to Iran by refugees from Afghanistan and Pakistan. But Iranian agricultural practices helped to spread the cholera. South of Tehran there are large vegetable farms. Crops are irrigated with wastewater that flows through the open channels running through this city of fourteen million.

Doctor Iradj Khosronia is president of the Iranian College of Internal Medicine and a government public health official. Khosronia says the government is trying to quarantine people who have come into contact with cholera carriers and its trying to monitor its eastern border, but he admits its hard to keep refugees from crossing. Khosronia says the government has also been educating the public to stop the further spread of the disease.

(Khosronia/Translator) "We've suggested to the people not to use vegetables and celery for the time being, because we cant tell which vegetables were grown using fresh water and which ones were grown using wastewater. We have told all vendors and restaurants to avoid using vegetables in their foods and sandwiches."

(Zind) Khosronia says Iranians have been asked not to purchase blocks of ice sold from hand carts wheeled down the streets, for the water used in them might be contaminated. He says travelers are being told to drink only bottled water, and to avoid eating at the rest stops along Irans highways.

(kitchen sounds)

(Zind) In the busy kitchen at Hani Restaurant in central Tehran, there are signs posted on the wall telling employees to use special precautions when they wash and cook vegetables. Owner Fatemeh Tarighat Monfared says she's stopped serving raw vegetables. She says she never received any official notice from the government about the cholera outbreak.

(Tarighat/Translator) "Everything we heard was through the media and press only. But we are in constant contact with health officials and we follow the news."

(Zind) Tarighat says business is down at some restaurants because of concern about cholera. Farmers have also been hurt by the outbreak. And for this nation of fruit and vegetable lovers, the disease has caused many to change their eating habits. This man says he carefully washes his hands, uses only bottled or boiled water and follows the other advice he's heard on the news.

(Man/Translator) "What has been advised is to wash fruits carefully prior to consumption, not to use vegetables at all, not to eat food at restaurants or vendors."

(Zind) Past cholera outbreaks here have spiked in the fall. Doctor Khosronia says the disease is under control at the moment, but officials are bracing for a new outbreak this month.

(Khosronia/Translator) "When schools open the danger exists that this disease will spread further. Weve suggested that the Health Ministry stop people from selling food on the streets."

(Zind) The World Health Organization has praised Iran's response to the cholera outbreak, but some Iranian newspapers have been critical. They've derided the government for not doing enough to control it - saying it's an embarrassment for Iran that the disease has spread so rapidly.

For Vermont Public Radio, I'm Steve Zind in Tehran.