WASHINGTON - A newly-released report found at least 3 percent of residents in the nation's capital are living with HIV or AIDS, and every mode of transmission is on the rise.

The findings in the 2008 epidemiology report by the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration point to a severe epidemic that's impacting every race and sex across populations and neighborhoods.

Director Shannon Hader says Washington's AIDS rates are higher than West Africa and on par with Uganda and parts of Kenya.

"This is an urgent and important and a long-term problem, that needs an urgent and important and a long-term solution," she said. "I actually think calling it an emergency sets the bar too low."

In years past, studies showed the gay population had higher rates of HIV and AIDS infection, but the report found that all modes of transmission are up and blacks are disproportionately affected.

The study found that the number of HIV and AIDS cases jumped 22 percent from the 12,428 reported in 2006. Almost 1 in 10 residents between 40 and 49 are living with the virus, and black men had the highest infection rate at almost 7 percent, the report said. It added that 3 percent of black women in D.C. have HIV.

The study found the highest concentration of HIV and AIDS are in Ward 6, the neighborhoods around the U.S. Capitol and RFK Stadium, and in Ward 8, in far Southeast, across the Anacostia River.

"It's really scary," said one woman. "It makes you really not want to do anything with anybody, because it's scary -- you never know."

"Because so many people are promiscuous, they don't pay attention to what they're doing," added another woman.

One 19-year-old gay man, who didn't want to be identified, told ABC 7's Sam Ford that he was diagnosed HIV-positive recently.

"When I found out, I was upset for that night and I started to get over it a little bit," he said.

One thing city leaders emphasized is that people are living longer with AIDS, which could drive the numbers up. The problem, they said, is that 70 percent of the people they surveyed said they were engaging in unprotected sex.

Geno Dunnington, a gay man diagnosed HIV-positive 25 years ago, says the growth in treatment options have changed attitudes toward HIV and AIDS, and .

"They didn't see this epidemic when people were dying off next to you, and you talk to one person one week and the next week they weren't around," Dunnington said, talking about how younger people were spared the horrors of the early days of HIV and AIDS.

Dunnington says the change in attitude is a mistake.

"Just last year I had buried two first cousins from HIV and AIDS."

District leaders have promised to fight a battle against HIV and AIDS. Mayor Adrian Fenty says the community as a whole needs to step up to the plate. For years, the city government has pushed for more AIDS education and early testing.

"For some reason -- we don't really understand why the messages aren't reaching people, why people still feel that HIV is not going to affect to them or not going to happen to them," explained Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick of Howard University Hospital. "If you treat it as any other illness, say getting your blood pressure checked every time you go to the hospital, you also get an HIV test, then we're not singling anybody out."

ABC 7 News talked with a Whitman Walker Clinic employee who noted that Monday's numbers are from 2007. He's already seen the 2008 numbers and says they are worse.

D.C. health officials admit they fear the infection rates could be worse than the numbers show, as the stigma of HIV and AIDS may prevent some from getting tested. But some peopled expressed hope that bringing this issue to the forefront of public awareness will finally spur action in terms of prevention.

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