The Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists (IAMM) was born in the year 1976 at Kasturba Medical College, Manipal when the medical microbiologists of our country felt the long awaited need for starting our own Association. Many of our colleagues who assembled at Manipal for the Annual Conference of the Association of Pathologists and Microbiologists (IAPM) also felt the need for a separate Association for the microbiologists.

Considering the fast development of the subject in the recent years, as well as the growing number of specialists in the field, it was felt that the time was ripe to establish our own Association to improve the status of the subject of Medical Microbiology as well as medical microbiologists in our country. Thus it was decided at Kasturba Medical College to start our own Association and nominate Dr. S.C. Agarwal, Dr. K.B. Sharma and Dr. Shriniwas as three chief architects to undertake the responsibilities to put the foundation for the new organization.

Thirty medical microbiologists from various parts of India joined as Founder Members and extended their support and suggestions to chart out the rules and regulations of our organization and christened it the Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists. The membership of IAMM has grown constantly and more than 1500 members have been enrolled till date. The IAMM has been conducting its annual meetings as the National Congress of IAMM in different cities regularly from the year 1977. The Association also supports Symposia, Workshops and invited special lectures in Medical Microbiology at various places or at Chapter meetings.

Affiliations:

The IAMM got affiliated with the International Federation of Tropical Medicine in the year 1985 and the International Union of Microbiological Societies (IUMS). At present the IAMM has eleven Regional/State Chapters in different parts of India. The IAMM Chapters organize their periodic meetings, symposia, workshops, CME and special lectures by invited scientists on various important topics in Microbiology.

Registration of Association:

The IAMM was registered with the Registrar of Societies Delhi Administration, Delhi on 20 th December, 1978. Now the registration has been granted by the Income Tax Department, Govt. of India commissioner of Income Tax-I, Chandigarh u/s 12A(a) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 vide No. CIT-I/CHD/Tech/12A/04-05/4930 dated 25 th February, 2005. We hope and wish that IAMM will achieve further heights with the active support and participation of our members and that many more eligible members will join IAMM family. The association will extend its activities on many other aspects besides diagnosis, teaching and research so that it is recognized at National and International Forums for planning of various health care programmes.