University Times

Infectious disease specialist Monto Ho died Dec. 16, 2013, at UPMC Presbyterian of complications following a fall.

Ho, chair emeritus of the Graduate School of Public Health Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology and former chief of the School of Medicine Division of Infectious Disease, was 86.

Ho was internationally recognized for his research on interferon, a substance produced by the body to fight viral infections, and was a renowned expert and pioneer in the understanding of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection.

Charles Rinaldo, chair of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, noted Ho’s extraordinary capacity to serve in three leadership positions concurrently: not only as a public health department chair and School of Medicine division chief, but also as medical director of the clinical microbiology labs at UPMC Presbyterian.

Ho’s leadership qualities included not only profound intelligence but also a calm demeanor and a forthright yet compassionate nature, said Rinaldo, adding that Ho’s unique experience gave him a broad-based perspective as a medical doctor, public health clinician and researcher.

“He had a broad vision of what needed to be done to address problems,” Rinaldo said.

A native of China, Ho earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and government at Harvard in 1949 and graduated in 1954 from Harvard Medical School, where he studied under Nobel laureate John Enders.

While Ho’s undergraduate education was not in medicine, it nevertheless aided his later work, Rinaldo noted. “This more diverse background helped him see the world more clearly, to search hypotheses and get answers.”

Rinaldo characterized Ho as a clear thinker with a systematic approach to research. “He stood even above other giants in that respect. He had a very set manner,” Rinaldo said, adding, “There’s a strength to that: building on ideas.”

Research — both basic and clinical — was Ho’s passion, Rinaldo said, adding that his best-known discoveries were “simple, clear ideas with profound effects on people’s lives.”

Ho’s lab uncovered the source of post-transplant viral infections — particularly CMV and herpesvirus — that complicated early organ transplants. Ho collaborated with Thomas E. Starzl on a National Institutes of Health grant to study the serology of transplant recipients and donors, research that showed that the mechanism of virus transmission is from donor to recipient.

Ho’s discovery that CMV could be transmitted by a transplanted organ was “a simple finding in essence with an extraordinary impact on the field to this day,“ Rinaldo said. “It changed the field of transplantation science. Donors and recipients are screened for CMV to this day. It’s an inexorable part of the screening and clinical oversight of these patients.”

Ho’s later work in Taiwan changed the nation’s policies on the use of antibiotics in the wake of gross overuse and rising drug resistance.

His work on CMV and in Taiwan “absolutely saved numerous lives,” Rinaldo said.

In a message informing colleagues of Ho’s death, public health Dean Donald S. Burke cited Ho’s key professional achievements. “Dr. Ho made fundamental discoveries of the antiviral activity of interferon and was the first to recognize that cytomegalovirus infection can be transmitted by the transplanted organ. He was considered the foremost expert on the clinical pathogenesis of CMV infection, and wrote a book on the subject that was for many years the main source of information on CMV infection. After retirement in 1997, he initiated a national surveillance program of antibiotic resistance in Taiwan that led to a significant decrease in the use of antibiotics,” Burke wrote.

Ho joined the Pitt faculty in 1959 as an assistant professor of epidemiology and microbiology and in 1962 received a joint appointment in the School of Medicine. There, in 1971, he became chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and was named professor of medicine.

At the public health school, Ho was promoted to professor of microbiology in 1965 and was named chair of the epidemiology and microbiology department (now the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology) in 1969.

Rinaldo succeeded him as chair when Ho left the University in 1997 to direct the division of clinical research in Taiwan’s National Health Research Institutes.

In addition to authoring many publications, Ho wrote a memoir in 2005. “Several Worlds: Reminiscences and Reflections of a Chinese-American Physician” described his life from childhood as the son of a Chinese diplomat through his research career in Pittsburgh and Taiwan.

Ho had an easy smile and infectious laugh, Rinaldo said. “He had the same laugh at 85 that he must have had at age 10,” he said. “One that grabs you and makes you feel good, too.”

While Ho’s demeanor was conservative, he appreciated a good joke, Rinaldo said, adding that Ho once surprised colleagues by appearing at the school’s Halloween party clad in full snorkeling gear. “For the chair to show up like that was memorable.”

While Ho’s life was devoted mainly to his profession and family, Rinaldo said he enjoyed world travel and was an avid tennis player.

His ongoing dedication to the department was further demonstrated in 2006 when Ho and his wife, Carol Tsu Ho, a former librarian in the public health school, pledged $2 million to endow the Monto and Carol Ho Chair in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology in the Graduate School of Public Health.

“He realized this would be important for the future of the department,” Rinaldo said of the endowed chair. “He made sure the department lived on through his gift.”

In addition to his wife of 61 years, Ho is survived by a daughter, Bettie Pei-wen Carlson; a son, John Ho; a sister, Manli Ho, and three grandchildren.

Memorial gifts to establish a scholarship in Ho’s memory may be sent to the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, A419B Public Health, Pittsburgh 15261.

—Kimberly K. Barlow