HIV/AIDS rates are on the rise in Massachusetts among Hispanics and blacks, who are infected at a “grossly disproportionate” rate to non-minorities, according to a recent state report, but experts say more education about the disease and new testing facilities in areas with large minority populations could help improve a dire situation.

According to a report released last week by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s HIV/AIDS Bureau, 16,000 HIV/AIDS sufferers lived in Massachusetts in 2005 — a 33-percent increase from 1999. Of those diagnosed with the disease between 2003 and 2005, 83 percent were minorities.

“Trends from the report [show] HIV very often reveals unequal patterns of low access to service,” said Kevin Cranston, director of the AIDS Bureau of Massachusetts, a division of the DPH. “We know there’s been severe levels of stigma and discrimination both with people with HIV and populations with HIV, and this connects with preexisting patterns within African-Americans and Latino communities.”

Many at-risk people are reluctant to get an HIV test because they fear the stigmas and discrimination that come with the disease, Cranston said. He said the department must work with the public to encourage testing and eliminate stereotypes attached to HIV/AIDS.

“We’re creating such a high hurdle for people to think, ‘I have to go do this thing that’s so stigmatized,'” Cranston said. “It’s our job in the Health Department to make those services readily accessible in the places where communities of color are likely to feel comfortable. . . . If we really want to get a handle on this, we need to take into account the population being affected by it.”

Poor minority populations also tend to avoid testing because they often lack the means or information to get tested, said Cathy Morales, executive director of Boston Living Center, a nonprofit dedicated to helping people with AIDS.

“I think a lot of it has to do with economic factors — some of them living in poverty [with] less support, sometimes not enough communication between the community to actually talk about it,” Morales said.

In July 2006, Massachusetts became the 48th state to adopt the Pharmacy Needle Access Act, which allows citizens to receive new hypodermic needles over the counter at drugstores to limit the spread of infections through injections with infected needles.

Though former Gov. Mitt Romney vetoed the clean needle bill, the state Legislature overwhelmingly overrode his decision, the city of Boston website said.

Since then, on a statewide level, Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration has made combating HIV/AIDS in Massachusetts — which has the ninth-highest infection rate in the country — a top priority, said AIDS Project Worcester Deputy Director Joe McKee.

McKee said though Patrick has directed the department to focus on AIDS-related issues, including increased testing, prevention programs and information campaigns in the most at-risk areas, the state has a long way to go.

“Since around 2001, under the last administration, programs targeting various groups at-risk were either totally eliminated or so drastically slashed, they were made ineffective,” McKee said. “I think that we continue to experience discrimination and gender inequality.”