Rates of HIV infection are on the rise in 50 countries with more than 1.8 million people becoming infected in 2017, a far cry from goals established for the near future, according to a new United Nations report.

The report, entitled “Miles to Go,” published earlier this week by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, says the pace of progress in saving lives and preventing new infections is “not matching the global ambition” of cutting the infection rate to 500,000 a year by 2020.

While the death rate from AIDS-related illnesses -- 940,000 in 2017 -- is the lowest this century, it is still nearly double the goal of reducing AIDS-related deaths to 500,000 or fewer by 2020, according to the report.

”New HIV infections are not falling fast enough,” Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director, wrote in the report. “HIV prevention services are not being provided on an adequate scale and with sufficient intensity and are not reaching the people who need them the most.”

Vulnerable populations account for a large proportion of the new HIV cases and the deaths from the infection, according to the report, which says 180,000 children became infected in 2017, and 110,000 children died from AIDS-related illnesses. The goal of the agency was to eliminate new infections in children by 2018.

Other vulnerable populations also seem to carry an elevated portion of the burden -- including sex workers, gay men and other men who have sex with men, prisoners, migrants, refugees -- often spurred by “stigma and discrimination,” according to the report.