Meta-analyses on pediatric infections and vaccines.

In pediatric infections, meta-analyses have helped clarify several controversial management issues. Unfortunately, many more aspects remain to be elucidated. This is particularly true in the field of UTIs, the most common serious bacterial infections in children, where prospective, well-designed, randomized clinical trials are urgently needed. Regarding vaccines, it is generally acknowledged that, although meta-analyses can provide useful information on their value, people who make decisions and set policies should not rely on that information alone, but rather use it alongside other sources of information. The fact that government policies do not always coincide with conclusions produced by meta-analyses in the field of vaccinations should not be regarded as a failure of the statistical methodology, but rather as a result of the complex societal and financial (cost versus benefit) decisions.