Monto Ho, In Memoriam

Monto Ho, a leader in the field of infectious diseases during the past 50 years and world-renowned expert in interferon and human herpesvirus infections of immunocompromised hosts, died 16 December 2013, after complications from a fall. Monto had the special ability to adopt the best qualities of Chinese and Western cultures to his everyday life and profession. Born in Yiyang, Hunan, China, in 1927, he moved with his family in 1937 to Vienna, Austria, where his father FengShan Ho had been appointed to the Nationalist Chinese consulate. During 1938–1940, as the Chinese Consul-General in Vienna, his father issued, against Chinese governmental orders, more than a thousand visas for Shanghai to Jews, thereby saving them from the Holocaust. For this extraordinary deed, he was awarded posthumously the “Righteous Among the Nations” award of Yad Vashem in 2001. In honor of his father’s illustrious life and career, Dr Ho recently translated his father’s biography into English [1]. While Monto was a sophomore at Tsing Hua University in Beijing in 1947, his father was appointed Chinese Ambassador to Egypt. Monto took the opportunity to transfer to Harvard College, where he was accepted as a junior. After graduating with high honors, Monto entered Harvard Medical School in 1950, where he received his MD in 1954. Following an internship and residency on the Harvard Medical Service at the Boston City Hospital, Dr Ho became a research fellow in infectious diseases under Edward H. Kass and Maxwell Finland, legendary leaders in clinical infectious diseases and founders of the American Society for Infectious Diseases. Monto then studied for 2 years in the Harvard laboratory of John F. Enders, Nobel Laureate, where he specialized in virology. It was in Enders’s laboratory that Dr Ho was introduced to the newly discovered antiviral protein interferon, which was to be central to his early career in research. In 1959Monto accepted dual appointments at the University of Pittsburgh as assistant professor, Department of Epidemiology, at the Graduate School of Public Health offered by Dr Enders’s close colleague, Dr William McDowell Hammon, a world leader in poliovirus and arbovirus research, and in the Department of Medicine in the School of Medicine. In contrast to his peripatetic youth, Dr Ho remained in Pittsburgh for his entire career. After the retirement of Dr Hammon, Monto became chairman of what is now the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, one of only 6 departments focused solely on infectious diseases in schools of public health. Dr Ho’s dedication to his work, Dr Monto Ho