Dr Henry Wilde

Abstract

The night of June 6, 2024, was difficult for me as I got a message on Skype from the wife of Dr Henry Wilde that he had passed away in the morning at 7:30 a.m. I paid my homage to him and went into thinking mode.
Dr Henry Wilde, a pioneer in the field of rabies, was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1927. Life changed for him as a teenager with the German invasion of the Czech Republic during World War II. I had been in touch with him for over a decade to collaborate on the low-cost protocol for dog bite treatment. It was humble of him to have supported me from beyond the borders in the interest of humanity. He was so concerned and down to earth that he even came to pick me up at Bangkok airport when I flew there for a World Health Organization (WHO) conference on March 19, 2018. That was my first meeting with him and it brought us closer as collaborators in research.