Dr.C.N.Sowmini, the then Director of the Institute of Venereology, Madras Medical College, Chennai, who , with the co-operation of a handful of committed workers, founded the Indian Association for the Study of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (IASSTD) in the year 1975. Association has been registered under section 10 of the Act with Registrar of Societies, Chennai. Later, in the year 1993, the name of the Association was changed to IASSTD & AIDS and this has also been registered under the above society.