Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis: past, present and future Ivan Bastian and Franyoise Portaels Mycobacteriology Unit. Institute of Tropical Medicine. Antwerp. Belgium The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth and he that is wise will not abhor them. Ecclesiasticus 38:4, quoted by Selman Waksman when accepting the 1952 Nobel Prize for Medicine that was awarded for the discovery of the first effective antituberculosis drug. streptomycin. which was derived from the soil bacterium, Streptomyces grisells. 1. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE This book has been published at the close of the twentieth...