What is the name of the first antibiotic used to treat tuberculosis?

The first antibiotic used to treat tuberculosis was streptomycin. Its discovery transformed TB from a disease managed largely through isolation and sanatorium care into one that could be attacked with an antimicrobial drug.

Streptomycin was isolated on October 19, 1943, by Albert Schatz, a graduate student working in Selman Waksman’s laboratory at Rutgers University. The drug is an aminoglycoside: it interferes with bacterial protein production by binding to the 30S subunit of the ribosome. This can kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis.

A major randomized clinical trial was conducted in Britain from 1946 to 1948 by the Medical Research Council Tuberculosis Research Unit. It showed that streptomycin could improve outcomes, although resistance developed and the drug had important toxic effects, including damage to hearing and balance. For that reason, it was not a complete long-term solution by itself.

Selman Waksman received the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of streptomycin. Modern TB treatment uses combinations of drugs, commonly including rifampicin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol, because combination therapy reduces the risk of resistance.