Disco Funerals: A Risk Situation for HIV Infection Among Youth in Kisumu, Kenya

The study authors investigated whether the phenomenon of so-called "disco funerals" -- in which community members, including adolescents, congregate at the home of the deceased for several days, accompanied by music and dancing -- put youth in Kisumu, Kenya, at risk for HIV and other STDs.

In the cross-sectional qualitative study, the authors conducted 44 in-depth interviews with male and female adolescents ages 15-20; they also observed six disco funerals.

Disco funerals were an important place for young people to congregate, increasing their opportunity to meet and engage in (risky) sexual activities. Many youth reported having casual sex on these occasions, sometimes with multiple partners, and usually without condoms. Some females were forced into sex, and there were several reports of gang rape. Sex in exchange for money was common. Drugs and alcohol appeared to facilitate unprotected, multiple-partner, coerced, and transactional sex.

"In Kisumu, a town with a generalized HIV/AIDS epidemic, the high AIDS mortality leads to frequent disco funerals. Because many adolescents are having unprotected, transactional, or coerced sex at these occasions, disco funerals might contribute to the high HIV prevalence among youth, especially among adolescent girls," the authors concluded. "HIV interventions urgently need to include outreach actions to youth who hang out at disco funerals and link up with parents and funeral organizers to reduce risk situations."

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