Centre for Child Health, Barts and the London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary, University of London, UK. teosss@yahoo.com
We conducted a prospective, nested study using nucleotide sequencing to examine influenza positive respiratory samples in families for genetic homology in the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase genes. Influenza A H3N2 viruses from 3 families had identical, family specific, HA1 nucleotide sequences. Sequences among these families were genetically heterogeneous. A 4th family was distinguished by sequencing of the influenza neuraminidase gene.