GUANGZHOU, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Collaborating Center for Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) Prevention and Innovations of the World Health Organization (WHO) was inaugurated on Saturday in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, aiming to support capacity building for venereal disease prevention and control in low- and middle-income countries around the world.
The Dermatology Hospital of Southern Medical University (SMU) and the SMU Institute for Global Health are hosting it. Yang Bin, director of the center, said it will conduct systematic, forward-looking international cooperative research focused on capacity building, testing innovation and application, and surveillance system development.
In capacity building, the center plans to lead the development of a standardized training series and, by 2030, train 100 senior STI prevention and control professionals for 15 low- and middle-income countries.
The center will prioritize key regions such as Africa and Southeast Asia and develop three to five practical, scalable strategies to optimize point-of-care testing.
For the surveillance system, the center will develop standardized, simple and easy-to-use data collection tools for STI surveillance, conduct pilot verification and localized application in priority African countries, and build an operational data integration and sharing platform that can be aligned with international systems.
Hannah Monica Dias of the WHO said the center would further deepen its engagement in developing relevant international guidelines, contribute more research evidence, support STI surveillance and capacity building across countries globally, and provide expert advice to support global public health governance.
China has demonstrated its commitment to multilateralism through medical cooperation. In 2025, it dispatched 1,061 medical personnel to 57 countries, providing services to more than 2.06 million patients. The country has also supported malaria control efforts in countries across Africa and Southeast Asia.
Under the China-WHO Country Cooperation Strategy for 2022-2026, the two sides have expanded cooperation, such as piloting people-centered integrated healthcare delivery systems in China. Joint programs have also helped countries such as Cambodia and Laos advance their efforts to eliminate schistosomiasis. ■
