PORTLAND – Health officials on Monday unveiled a statewide testing program for hepatitis C, which afflicts an estimated 15,000 Maine residents.

The program also includes efforts to increase education about the blood-borne liver disease through free counseling, a state Bureau of Health Web site and radio and TV public service announcements.

Officials say that fewer than 10 percent of people with hepatitis C are aware that they have the disease.

The most common risk factors are sharing needles for drug use and having received a blood transfusion before 1992, when more effective blood screening tests became available.