CANBERRA - Australians newly diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has totaled 1,050 during 2009, the highest number in almost two decades, latest data showed on Monday.

According to University of New South Wales Associate Professor David Wilson, it was the fourth year in a row that new HIV diagnoses in Australia reached over the thousand mark.

During the late 1990s, there were only about 700 cases of HIV diagnoses recorded.

While the number of people newly diagnosed with HIV every year consistently hits a thousand, it is becoming increasingly rare to die from acquired immune deficiency syndrome  (AIDS) in Australia.

National Center in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research ( NCHECR) figures showed there were just nine deaths attributed to AIDS in 2009, down from 26 in 2008, and the figure has declined since the 1990s.

Dr Wilson indicated the number reflected the rising effectiveness of treatments that can stop HIV from progressing to AIDS.

"We are in an era where we are seeing the lowest deaths associated with HIV than we have seen in history," Dr Wilson told Australia Associated Press on Monday.

"In the next ten years we can expect our population living with HIV to get a lot older.

"In 1985, the percentage of the (HIV-positive) population that was aged over 55 years was only about 2.5 percent. Currently it is about 25 percent, and in another ten years we expect it to be around 44 percent."

As of late 2009, Australia had recorded a total 29,395 diagnoses of HIV infection since the virus was first discovered, with 10,446 of those cases resulting in AIDS, and 6,776 related deaths.