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It was sheer curiosity that led Xiaohua to sniff heroin 10 years ago. "I heard that drugs give people a high," she recalls. "And I had a try."

Xiaohua, then a high school student in Nanning city, capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in south-western China, immediately vomited after her first sniff. But soon she was hooked. Today, 26-year-old Xiaohua gets sick if she does not get her fix. Xiaohua's sister, Xiaomei, is also addicted to drugs.

For the two sisters, getting money for the white powder is their topmost concern. They say they are willing to do anything to get it. "It (heroin) is more expensive now. A small pinch, the size of a fingernail, costs 50 yuan (6 U.S. dollars) and that's just enough for a day's consumption," says Xiaohua.

After they got hooked, the sisters initially formed a gang with other drug addicts that would go around stealing from boutiques. "While a customer was trying something on," Xiaohua describes, "one of us would steal her handbag while the others provided cover. If we succeeded, we would throw away anything 'useless' in the handbag — ID cards for example — and sell handsets and other things. Then we would divide the money among us. It never occurred to us that we were committing a crime, neither did we care about how our victims felt. Who cared for us, after all?"

Xiaohua also dragged her businessman boyfriend, seven years her senior, into the habit. Between the two of them, they squandered away 72,000 U.S. dollars on drugs. After the boyfriend went bankrupt, he resorted to stealing to support their habit. "He was caught while trying to steal a motorcycle and was jailed for life," Xiaohua continues.

When stealing for drug money became dangerous, the two sisters resorted to selling sex.

The story of the sisters is far from exceptional. In recent years, officials say, the number of female drug users has been increasing in China. Women account for 16.7 percent of the one million drug addicts in police records across the country, and in some provinces, the figure is as high as 40 percent. In 2000, female drug addicts numbered 138,000 nationwide, according to police figures.

Police in Guangxi report a local drug-using population of 50,000, 14 percent of whom are women. The autonomous region is a major stop on a drug trafficking route that originates from the Golden Triangle and reaches neighbouring Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Macau.

Xiaohua claims she began looking for 'boyfriends' in hotels when she was 16. She says that for each sexual encounter she now gets about 12 dollars. "Some generous men pay me 125 dollars for just one night of 'special service'," she says.

The Public Security Bureau of south-west China's Chongqing municipality has conducted a survey among female drug users and found that 95 percent of them — the youngest only 11 years old — offer 'special services' in order to have enough funds to maintain their supply of drugs. Sources with the bureau say that more than 90 percent of them suffer from various sexually transmitted diseases.

According to Zhou Xiaolu, a member of Chongqing's anti-drug squad, the most worrying aspect of the problem is that many such sex workers are underage. The policewoman cited the story of a 15-year-old girl who claimed to be 18 when she was caught selling sex. "She was misled into drug abuse, and then into prostitution, by a cousin," recalls Xiaolu. "When she was sent to our correction centre, she had festering private parts."

A survey by the National Centre for AIDS/STD Prevention and Control (NCAPA) indicates that the Hepatitis C infection rate among female drug addicts ranges from 8.3 percent to 79 percent and the syphilis rate, from 1.4 to 29.2 percent. Needle-sharing by female drug users makes them vulnerable to HIV/AIDS as well.

Experts believe that having multiple sex partners among female drug users, apart from sharing needles, heightens the risk of HIV/AIDS and helps its spread.

Wu Zunyou, a researcher at NCAPA, said that intravenous drug use was responsible for 40 percent of HIV cases identified in China during January to September 2003, and unprotected sex for 11 percent. "The actual rate of infection caused by unprotected sex should be around 30 to 40 percent."

Zunyou's study brings to light what he calls a "vicious cycle". After visiting a sex worker who is HIV-positive, a male customer may have sex with his wife and other partners.

A woman from south-west China, caught selling sex in 1999, was found to be HIV-positive. She had had sex with no less than 100 men and had shared needles with at least 50 people. "It is impossible for us to work out the exact number of men and women who may have been infected this way," says Zunyou. "In the past, people were not fully aware of female drug abuse and researchers often ignored the problem."

Zunyou, who is engaged in AIDS prevention among sex workers, calls for a scientific and sensitive approach to the pandemic. "We could provide them with training so that they are able to support themselves before reintegrating into society. Community care is also indispensable as a part of the social support system," he suggests.

(The names of the drug users have been changed.)