Learn about the development of tuberculosis treatment in this video adapted from The Forgotten Plague: Tuberculosis in America | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. In 1943, Selman Waksman and Albert Schatz isolated the first effective antibiotic treatment for tuberculosis, Streptomycin. However, patients relapsed with infections from bacteria that were resistant to the drug. Scientists soon found that a combination of three antibiotics, when taken correctly, was very effective at curing tuberculosis.