National incidence of percutaneous injury in Taiwan healthcare workers.

We established a standardized surveillance system using the Chinese Exposure Prevention Information Network to estimate the frequency of percutaneous injuries (PCIs) in Taiwanese healthcare workers (HCWs). Fourteen hospitals employing 8,132 HCWs participated and a total of 583 PCIs were reported. The annual number was estimated to be 8,058 PCIs per hospital size, 8,100 per HCWs, and 8,286 per inpatient-day; indicating similar estimates using different denominators. The estimated annual frequency of pathogen-specific PCIs was 1,168 for hepatitis B, 1,263 for hepatitis C, and 59 for HIV. This study documents the annual incidence of PCI among HCWs showing important potential exposure to viral hepatitis and HIV in Taiwan.