A census official in Namutumba district is crying foul after being bitten by a dog from one of the homes he had gone for the enumeration exercise.
Patrick Isabirye says he was attacked by a dog at the home of one Madina Nabirye a resident of Kangulumo B village in Namutumba Town Council.
Isabirye says since he has not yet received facilitation from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), he is now stuck without money for treatment and vaccination against rabies.
“Iam here stuck after being bitten by a dog which is suspected to be rabbied since UBOS is yet to give us any money. I would have used that for treatment”, Patrick said.
He is thus calling for support from well-wishers.
The UBOS Deputy Executive Director Godfrey Nabongo said they are yet to receive a report about the said incident.
Nabongo however adds that if it’s true, the Bureau will take over the matter since the affected person was carrying out its work.
“I’m yet to receive a report on this incident in Namutumba but UBOS is ready to take care of this person because it is our staff”, Nabongo said.
He said the affected person only needs to formally submit to UBOS the cost of treatment in writing and the bill will be cleared.
Rabies is a vaccine-preventable fatal zoonotic disease. On average, the vaccination costs about Shs 350,000.
Since the 2024 National Housing and Population Census (NHPC) exercise kicked off on May 10th, some of the enumerators have experienced various challenges including attacks that claimed that lives of atleast three of them.
The 10-day census exercise will end on May 19th except for Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono where it was extended by one day due to technical glitches experienced by some enumerators on the first day.
