Admiring Dr. Monto Ho’s distinguished career following the trail of his published articles in the New England Journal of Medicine

On January 4 we attended the memorial service of Dr. Monto Ho (何曼德醫師), a world renowned infectious disease specialist, who died of complications following a fall at age of 86 on December 9, 2013.

My attempt is to review Dr. Ho’s distinguished career and contribution following his published articles in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), omitting his many other articles in many other leading and prestigious medical journals.

Dr. Ho was Harvard educated (both Harvard College and medical school) and studied under Dr. John Enders, a Nobel laureate for his work on poliomyelitis virus tissue culture.  Dr. Ho was a pioneering researcher on cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and interferon.  Numerous articles (only those published on NEJM mentioned here) and book attest to his extraordinary achievement.

Dr. Ho came to Pittsburgh in 1959, spending close to 40 years of his professional career here, heading three major departments in both medical school and public health school of the University of Pittsburgh concurrently, an enormous energy and capacity that no one can match.

Dr. Ho collaborated with Dr. Thomas Starzl and uncovered the source of post-transplant infections, contributing the success of the transplant, help establishing the eminent position of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).  His discovery of from donor to recipient CMV infection changed the practice of transplant (NEJM 11/27/1975 “The transplanted kidney as a source of cytomegalovirus infection), the screening procedure has been done to this day.  His book of “Cytomegalovirus: Biology and Infection”, published in 1991, was touted as the bible and an indispensable source of this field in his day.

Being a pioneer expert of interferon, a substance body produced to fight viral infection, Dr. Ho had a series of “Medical Progress” articles published in NEJM (June 14, 21, & 28, 1962) with a title of Interferons.  He also wrote Editorials in this topic: “Interferon and hepatitis B virus (NEJM 9/2/2976) and “Interferon and herpes zoster” (NEJM 11/26/1970).

Being an expert on interferon, it is no surprise that he was asked to write a book review of “Interferon and Their Application” on October 4, 1984 NEJM.

Dr. Ho also wrote many other Editorials in NEJM such as “Human Herpesvirus 8 – Let the transplant physician beware” (NEJM 11/5/1998) and “Hepatitis C virus – another agent transmitted by transplant organs (NEJM 8/15/1991).

Dr. Ho also collaborated with Dr. Rinaldo (current Professor and Chair of the Department of Infectious Disease and Microbiology at the UP Graduate School of Public Health) and others in the early 1980s on AIDS/HIV original research, establishing the ongoing Pitt Men’s Study project.  Dr. Ho also had articles about HIV published in NEJM.

After retirement from University of Pittsburgh in 1997, Dr. Ho embarked a second career (1997-2002), as distinguished as his first, in Taiwan.  He established the Division of Infectious Diseases in the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI 國家衛生研究院).  Realizing the widespread bacterial resistance to antibiotics pattern, he launched the campaign reducing antibiotic overuse/abuse in Taiwan.

While in Taiwan in 1998, Dr. Ho identified the cause of outbreaks of hand-foot-and-mouth disease or herpangina as enterovirus 71, affecting thousands of people, some of them died.  His report was in NEJM on September 23, 1999, “An Epidemic of Enterovirus 71 Infection in Taiwan”.

His strength of a superb clinician and adroit laboratory investigator is matched by his enormous capacity of management and administration; his heading three major departments concurrently at University of Pittsburgh and his work at Taiwan attest to it.  He was truly a man of no equal.

We know what kind of doctor Dr. Ho was, I would be remiss if I neglect to say what kind of person he was. Intelligent, humble, compassionate, and a calm demeanor and forthrightness are just a few characteristics that Dr. Rinaldo said of Dr. Ho.