Sun-Journal from Lewiston, Maine • A3

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PORTLAND (AP) Health officials estimate that as many as 23,000 Maine residents are infected with hepatitis a virus that was little-known 15 years ago but is now the most common blood-borne infection. Even though hepatitis is also top reason for liver transplants, resources to fight the slow-moving virus are scarce. Last year, Maine used $32,000 in federal block grants and $15,000 in private funding to provide free hepatitis testing at 22 sites around the state. The Centers for Disease Control provided about $110,000 to fund the viral hepatitis coordinator. In contrast, the state last year budgeted about $1.9 million in federal and state funds for HIV prevention activities and about $350,000 for STD control and prevention.

Although Bureau of Health and local health departments are planning hepatitis education and testing, some patients are taking matters into their own hands, hoping to keep others from infection or misinformation about the virus. Norm Burnell, an information technology manager from Lewiston, thinks he was exposed to hepatitis as a medic in the Vietnam War. He is advocating for patients on his Web site, www.hepatitiscnme.org. time for someone to come out and for people to understand that over 4 million Americans are infected with this virus and a big said Burnell, 54. Hepatitis can cause chronic illness and fatigue in up to 85 percent of infected people.

One- fifth of people with hepatitis will also develop liver cirrhosis, which can cause serious health complications and lead to liver cancer, or even death. The virus is mostly transmitted by sharing intravenous needles. It can also be passed on by unprotected sex and unsanitary tattooing. Until better blood tests were developed in the early 1990s, many people contracted hepatitis through contaminated transfusions. Joelle Leeks, a sales representative from Cape Elizabeth, was diagnosed last May.

was pretty much shocked I done anything to put myself at said Leeks, 36, who eventually pinpointed a blood transfusion after a 1987 car accident. Leeks and members of her support group are organizing a grass-roots education campaign about the virus, and hope to see a hot line for doctors with questions for hepatitis specialists. Liz Delano, 50, is a patient advocate and a paramedic from Portland, who has given lectures about the disease to others in her field. say, Liz could have it, I could have it, said Delano, who thinks she may have contracted the virus on the job. Advocates hope hepatitis patients will one day enjoy support networks like those for 1,200 HIV and AIDS patients.

But Delano said discouraged by the lack of funding. Experts say funding may flow toward hepatitis efforts as more cases are diagnosed, and more research appears. knowledge about hepatitis has assistant state epidemiologist Geoff Beckett said. knew what to do about it early on, and changed very dramatically in the last five or six HE ELEGRAPH AN ILLIAMSON OUCH! Registered Nurse Chris Lapierre-Gagnon gives a shot to Drew Robinson, 16, at a clinic set up Sunday in Derry, N.H., for patrons who may have been exposed to hepatitis A at a Taco Bell restaurant in Derry. Most people who get hepatitis which is not the same as hepatitis recover completely.

Family of woman hires investigator Lake list update to be last PORTLAND (AP) A new list of lakes where fishing season will extend into October will be the last, according to the director of fisheries operations. The state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has spent the last 15 years adding to the number of stocked fisheries where it allows late fall fishing, but John Boland says a proposed list of 42 more locations will be the last. The public will be invited to comment on the proposal this spring. Peter Bourque, state director of fisheries program development, says the department is reluctant to open many more waters because most sustain wild populations that need to be protected from fishing pressure. there is a petition for a specific water body, we probably would not be recommending a large number of Bourque said.

Boland said the general outcry for more fall fishing opportunity has never been great. But the Alliance of Maine wants all waters open later in the fall, New Sharon fishing guide Gary Corson said. Corson said that with catch and release, the fish are not harmed, and wild fisheries are not at risk. But Boland said the depart- ment went through every surveyed water body in the state, but will not take a chance on opening up wild fisheries for late-season fishing. this is going to be it.

Then be able to say looked at Boland said. The state has extended the fishing season on hundreds of water bodies to provide fishing opportunity beyond September, when the general season closes in most of northern and western Maine. In southern and central Maine, virtually all waters are now open through October, Boland said. Around 1996, Boland said, the state started allowing fishing on some stocked trout waters in October and November. Two years later, the general season was extended on almost all water bodies in eight central and southern Maine counties.

About 400 waters in northern, eastern and western Maine, were added to the extended season list in 2001. Bourque said the majority of the fisheries in those areas are wild, and will remain closed in October. Boland said that more than 1,500 of more than 6,000 lakes and ponds are open for fall fishing. R.C. Stevens is looking into the disappearance of nursing student Maura Murray.

HAVERHILL, N.H. (AP) The family of a missing Massachusetts woman has hired an investigator to find out what happened to her following a minor car crash in northern New Hampshire. R.C. Stevens of PSII a Northampton, private investigation agency, is looking into the disappearance of 21-year-old Maura Murray, who was last seen the night of Feb. 9.

It appears Murray, a nursing student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, was planning a getaway. She lied to professors about a death in the family, said she would be gone from class for the week, then packed her belongings as if she was moving out. Her family and friends believe she was given a ride and want police to treat her disappearance as a criminal investigation. all the attention from the media, if a good person had picked her up, he would have come said Sharon Rausch, mother of Bill Rausch, boyfriend. leads us to believe a bad guy picked her up.

just wish they would treat this as a criminal investigation. If they treated it as such, the FBI could become more she said. Lt. John Scarinza, commander of New Hampshire State Police Troop said that investigators are still treating disappearance as a missing person investigation. Scarinza said there is absolutely no evidence foul play has been involved, and that people living in the area of the accident scene have been interviewed several times.

A search of nearby homes by a canine team as well as forensics experts would require a search warrant. And a search warrant would require probable cause. Searches of the area, using dogs and a helicopter, have turned up no sign that Murray wandered into the snow-covered wods. all the attention from the media, if a good person had picked her up, he would have come Sharon Rausch RIEFLY Chiefs, sheriffs endorse renewal BIDDEFORD (AP) Seventeen Maine police chiefs and four county sheriffs have urged U.S. Sens.

Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to back renewal of the ban on assault weapons. The law enforcement officers also called on the senators to tighten gun laws by requiring instant background checks for all firearms sales at gun shows. office said she supports continuation of the assault weapon ban and backs the institution of background checks at gun shows as long as they are completed in 24 hours. Snowe would not say how she intends to vote, an aide said. Most of the chiefs and sheriffs who signed the letter were from southern Maine.

They were among nearly 200 law enforcers from 15 states who wrote similar letters to their senators. Chief Roger Beaupre of Biddeford said Monday he is not opposed to guns, but supports the gun show amendment as a way to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals. Biddeford and nearby Sanford both host gun shows, Beaupre said, and the most part, legitimate people buy legitimate a touchy he said. a country with an established constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to bear On the assault weapons ban, Beaupre said, need an assault weapon to go hunting. The average citizen want an assault Robinson declines speaking dates CONCORD, N.H.

(AP) Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson is declining all overseas speaking engagements until a commission studying the effect of his consecration as the Anglican first openly gay leader finishes its work. Robinson said in deference to the commission, have decided to decline all public speaking engagements in outside of the United States until the commission is done. that time, I will gladly join the international conversations about the full inclusion of gay and lesbian Christians as children of God and full members of the Robinson said in a statement Monday. Anglican leaders warned that consecration last November could shatter the global Anglican Communion.

The official line rejects homosexual practice as with Shortly before Robinson was consecrated, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams named a mix of conservative and liberal church leaders to the commission to examine the crisis over homosexuality that is wracking the Anglican Communion. The commission is expected to release its report later this year. The commission also was expected to study the blessings given to same-sex couples by the Canadian diocese of New Westminster in British Columbia In his statement, Robinson said he has withdrawn from a March 11 debate at Oxford University on the role of gays in the church. He had accepted the invitation last year. The debate is being held at the 175-year-old Oxford Union, which brings international guests and speakers to Oxford University for debates on world issues.

N.H. man turns himself in KEENE, N.H. (AP) A Rindge man accused of helping a man flee charges that he killed a Vermont State Police trooper surrendered Monday. Joshua Tatro, 27, failed to appear in Cheshire County Superior Court on Friday to answer felony charges that he drove Eric Daley of Lebanon, N.H., to Pennsylvania last June. A judge on Friday issued an order for arrest.

Tatro turned himself in to Rindge police Monday. He was taken to court where he pleaded innocent to the charges against him. Daley faces second-degree murder charges in Vermont for killing State Police Sgt. Michael Johnson with his car. Johnson was hit while trying to stop Daley during a chase on Interstate 91.

Daley ran from the scene on Interstate 91 in Norwich. He was arrested on the Appalachian Trail two days later. Two other New Hampshire men, Adrian Greene, 28, of Enfield, and Kevin 27, of Lebanon, are being charged in Vermont with being accessories after the fact for assisting Daley..