In brief
On 7 November 2026, the WHO opened a collaborating center in Guangzhou to build STI prevention capacity through standardized training, innovative point‑of‑care testing, and surveillance tools, focusing on Africa and Southeast Asia. The center will work with Southern Medical University under the direction of Yang Bin and support the WHO’s global strategy with guidance from Hannah Monica Dias.
On 7 November 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) formally opened its Collaborating Center for Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention and Innovations in Guangzhou, the capital of China’s Guangdong Province. The ceremony took place inside the Dermatology Hospital of Southern Medical University (SMU) and its Institute for Global Health, with the event attended by WHO officials, SMU faculty and government representatives.
Yang Bin, the newly appointed director of the center, outlined the organization’s ambition to run systematic, forward‑looking international research. He emphasized capacity building, testing innovation, and the development of surveillance systems as the core pillars of the center’s work.
One of the center’s primary targets is training. By 2030, Yang Bin said the program aims to train 100 senior STI prevention and control professionals from 15 low‑ and middle‑income countries. The training curriculum will be standardized, making it easier to roll out across regions that are most affected, especially in Africa and Southeast Asia.
To improve day‑to‑day diagnosis, the center will design three to five practical, scalable point‑of‑care testing strategies. These strategies are intended to be simple to implement in resource‑constrained settings, enabling faster detection and treatment of venereal diseases.
The surveillance arm of the center will create easy‑to‑use data collection tools tailored for STI tracking. Pilot testing will occur in selected priority African nations, followed by localized applications. A shared operational data integration platform will then be built, allowing countries to align their surveillance data with international systems.
Hannah Monica Dias of the WHO added that the collaborating center would deepen engagement in developing relevant international guidelines, expanding research evidence, and giving expert advice to national public‑health authorities worldwide. She stressed that the center’s work would strengthen global public‑health governance.
China’s recent medical diplomacy has formed the backdrop for this initiative. In 2025, the country dispatched 1,061 medical personnel to 57 countries, providing care to more than 2.06 million patients. China also supported malaria control and other disease‑control programs across Africa and Southeast Asia.
Under the China‑WHO Country Cooperation Strategy for 2022‑2026, the two sides broadened collaboration, including pilots of people‑centered integrated health‑care delivery systems in China. Joint projects have also helped Cambodia and Laos push toward eliminating schistosomiasis.
The center’s efforts fit into a larger narrative of global STI control that prioritizes data, diagnostics, and training. By producing evidence‑based tools and sharing them through a robust platform, WHO and SMU hope to influence policies in countries where resources for STI services remain scarce.
Given the projected training of 100 senior professionals and the potential scale of point‑of‑care testing innovations, the center’s impact could extend across several LMICs, improving early detection and treatment rates and reducing STI transmission overall.
In sum, the Guangzhou center marks a tangible step toward better STI surveillance and prevention worldwide, aligned with China’s broader health‑aid commitments and the WHO’s global public‑health strategy.
