On the day his funeral takes place in Trieste, Italy I would like to send a tribute to my good friend and colleague Dr Adriano Cattaneo, an epidemiologist who brought passion as well as intellectual rigour to his work on breastfeeding support and advocacy.
I first met him as a fellow campaigner against milk formula marketing at a time when ISSOP was building a case against conflict of interest among paediatricians and national paediatric societies. I found him to be a global authoritative voice on this topic and active with IBFAN, the International Baby Food Action Network. At that time (and indeed in the present) he was very critical of the Italian paediatric societies which all (apart from the small multi disciplinary society of which he was proud) took sponsorship funding from formula companies.
We met again through the WHO in the formation of HASFF (Health Advocates for Sponsorship Free Feeding) which aims to end the so damaging funding of health professional associations by the commercial formula industry. As chair of HASFF he was clear headed, fastidious, far sighted and always prepared to take on new challenges. Although we never met in person, I consider him a close friend and colleague and always intended to visit him in Trieste. His short illness was associated with a cerebral haemorrage as well as a cycle accident and his loss was unexpected and a huge blow to the worldwide breastfeeding community as well as to his wife, children and grandchildren. His legacy on the strong need for breastfeeding support will last for generations.
Tony Waterston
CHIFA profile:
Tony Waterston is a retired consultant paediatrician who worked mainly in the community in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He spent 6 years working in Zambia and Zimbabwe and directed the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Diploma in Palestinian Child Health teaching programme in the occupied Palestinian territories. He was an Editor of the Journal of Tropical Pediatrics and is on the Executive Committee of the International Society for Social Pediatrics. His academic interests are child poverty, advocacy for child health and children's rights. He was the lead moderator of CHIFA (HIFA's sister forum on child health and rights) until November 2024. www.chifa.org