Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia's human cases of avian influenza are occurring with increasing frequency, prompting the government to step up monitoring efforts aimed at slowing the spread of the virus among animals, the agriculture minister said.

Humans are contracting the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus at a faster pace, causing more deaths, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriantono told reporters in Jakarta before attending a cabinet meeting on bird flu, without elaborating. ``We will step up preventive efforts, be more proactive. We will do checking even on areas that haven't seen any cases of dead poultry. Information dissemination about bird flu will be stepped up.''

Indonesia has the second-highest number of bird flu cases among humans in the world. The H5N1 virus has killed at least 18 people of the 25 people it has infected in the Southeast Asian nation. Health authorities say they are concerned the virus will mutate into a form easily transmitted among humans, causing a deadly global pandemic. The country's suspected sixth cluster of human infections, in two adults and their two-year-old daughter, has heightened concerns.

``We have the highest cluster in the world. And the higher the cluster the higher possibility of human to human (infection),'' Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari told reporters before attending the same meeting.

The World Health Organization has said public awareness about the dangers of handling diseased poultry needs to be increased, particularly in urban areas where there is a greater density of both human and fowl populations. About 30 million households in villages live alongside more than 200 million fowl.

Indonesia aims to raise the number of designated bird flu hospitals to 100 from 44 by the end of this year and plans to boost stocks of Roche Holding AG's Tamiflu drug, Minister of People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie said on Feb. 14.

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