JAKARTA: Indonesia readied more hospitals to deal with a spike in bird flu cases while Japan confirmed its first outbreak of H5N1 in poultry in three years on Tuesday as the virus flared anew in Asia, mirroring past winters.

Concern about the disease have rippled across the region, with an Indonesian hospital overwhelmed by human cases this week, and the virus spreading among flocks in Vietnam and flaring again in Thailand.

But the World Health Organisation (WHO) said there were no signs of the virus spreading between humans and the reaction of most countries was much better than in the past.

“Obviously we are very concerned if this virus should develop the ability to transmit between humans. We have not seen any clear sign of that yet. We are hoping it will stay the way it is,” Peter Cordingley, WHO spokesman for the Asia-Pacific, told Reuters Television in Manila.

“A lot of countries have done very well. Their defences are better, the reaction is better, the surveillance is better. But if we want to describe this as a soccer game, I would say we are still in the first half and the virus is winning 5-2.”

Concerns grew as four Indonesians died this year after a six-week lull in cases, taking the number of human deaths from bird flu in the country to 61, the highest in the world.

“In the event of an escalation, more hospitals must be prepared. We are taking an inventory of what they need,” said Nyoman Kandun, the Indonesian health ministry’s director general of communicable disease control.

His comments came after a doctor at Jakarta’s Persahabatan hospital said it was overwhelmed with patients with bird flu symptoms.

Six children were discharged after tests found they did not have the virus, but three are still in hospital and another three with similar symptoms have been admitted, said Muchtar Ikhsan, head of Persahabatan’s bird flu ward.

H5N1 has spread across much of Asia, into Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Migrating birds and poultry smuggling are believed to be some of the ways the virus has spread.—Reuters