The drugs and fatal virus were injected into the drug users' bodies with the used syringes, which bring transient pleasures and long sufferings, and destroy their defensive systems.

December 1 is the 26th World AIDS Day. We(InKunming) turn the camera on a group of women from Honghe prefecture in southern Yunnan. They are saddled with drugs and AIDS. Their stories warn people: stay away from drugs.

Injectors were found on a wall of a toilet in Gongren Village, Gejiu. (Photo/ Ma Shanshan)

Yuan Xiaohua has infected with AIDS in Gejiu City. A friend of hers passed away recently. On the next day, she went to the crematorium and said goodbye to her friend. Afterwards, she heard that her friend deceased lonely in a rental room and was found by neighbors several days later.

Yuan has seen 50 "sisters" dying. Without any exception, all of them were infected with HIV, meanwhile they were drug addicts or sex providers.

The drug swept across Gejiu like a plague at the beginning of the 1990s. Once they went down with drugs, their life were suffered from addiction, injectors and even AIDS. Some were attacked by AIDS since they usually share a same injector, and some women chose to buy drug by providing sex services, a result in wide spread of AIDS.

There is a disease control center in the city, in which the drug abusers will take adanon every day.

Adanon is a synthetic opioid that is used as the hydrochloride. It is an opioid analgesic that is primarily a muopioid agonist. As a replacement of narcotics, it is strictly controlled in China. Taking methadone just helps relieve people's desire to heroin, which, to a certain degree, reduces the opportunities of sharing the same injector.

As introduced by the center, injection drug has been the simplest and commonest way to get high. The drug users usually share a same injector during their paranoid hallucinations, bringing about the spread of AIDS, which is hard to curb.

Ren Xiaojuan has been a regular visitor of the center. She takes the methadone every day. Having been hit by drug for nearly 20 years, the 42-year-old woman looks like a 60-year-old diseased aged woman. Staggering while walking, she has to support her body with a long umbrella during her dying life.

Ren stole all the valuables from her family to sell. In order to make money for drugs, she sells herself into servitude at the price of 30 yuan for long term. Having been jailed for 6 years in the charge of taking drug, she continued to use drug once released.

"When I was infected with AIDS, my families turned against me," said she.

She was said to work as a prostitute to earn money for the methadone that costs less than 10 yuan one time.

Until today, she has no idea how she was infected with AIDS. "I heard that sharing a needle or having sex without a condom may lead to the disease, but I have do both things for dozens of times. I do not know how many days do I have. Maybe one year. I hope to see my mom for one more time before I die."

Yuan Xiaohua, 42 years old, has been using drug for several years. She used to be a procuress and knew hookers well. In the red-light areas, these women were tempted by drugs. Some were HIV infections and passed away one by one. "maybe a few years later, you’ll never see us again. It is doomed." said she.

Yuan once joined in a family health international organization. She opened a work shop to service the prostitutes, after being trained. The workshop conducted a survey before and found that 70% of the sex workers in the city took drugs.

Ren is in the period of morbidity. Usually, an AIDS patient may die in half a year to two years without any antiviral therapy.