The Mexican flu is spreading faster in Britain than in all other European countries combined. Just this past week 100,000 people were infected, twice the rate of infection of the week before. So far thirty people have died of the Mexican flu in Britain. It is thought that Britain is being hit so hard because of its close ties to North America.

Worse is still to come. The government has predicted that 30 percent of the population, or more than 18 million people, will get the flu. Businesses are preparing to deal with a situation where one in five employees will be home sick.

Home affairs minister Alan Johnson, formerly the health minister, has said the Mexican flu pandemic is a bigger threat to the country than terrorism. On Tuesday, the government's senior medical adviser, Sir Liam Donaldson, called the disease "the biggest challenge in a generation".

The government has put out a worst-case scenario of 65,000 dead, even if it admitted this is little more than a wild guess. On Thursday, a national help line manned by a staff of 1,500 and a dedicated web site became operational in anattempt to relieve family doctors who are being flooded with phone calls.

The help line and the web site will also be used to distribute flu treatment drugs like Tamiflu if necessary. Britain has ordered extra Tamiflu and now has enough for 80 percent of the population. A flu vaccine will not be delivered to European countries until October at the earliest.

Popular reaction to the flu epidemic has been subdued so far, but there was some panic last weekend as an organisation of midwives advised pregnant women against using public transportation, and another group recommended that women postpone any pregnancies until after the epidemic has subsided.

The government dismissed that particular advice as scaremongering, but critics say the government is doing exactly that. After all, in many cases the Mexican flu will not be much worse than the common cold.

The Anglican church, however, was worried enough to reinstate a 1547 rule, allowing churchgoers to temporarily forgo sharing the chalice during mass.