HIV and AIDS cases rise 22 percent in D.C.

A new report by D.C. health officials says that 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 the population and neighborhoods.

Scheduled to be released Monday, the report says that the number of HIV and AIDS cases jumped 22 percent from the nearly 12,500 reported in 2006. Almost 1 in 10 residents between ages 40 and 49 are living with HIV, and black men had the highest infection rate at almost 7 percent.

The report says that the virus is most often transmitted by men having sex with men, followed by heterosexual transmission and injection drug use.