It was only when drugs such as streptomycin and para-aminosalicylate were successively found able to effectively treat tuberculosis that humanity could be said to have escaped the curse of the "white plague" In the 1970s, the new drug rifampicin (RFP) was successfully developed, reducing the treatment regimen for TB from two years to half a year. TB was no longer a terminal illness.
直到鏈黴素、對氨基水楊酸等藥物陸續被發現能有效治療肺結核，人類才算脫離了「白色瘟疫」的夢魘。一九七○年代新藥物「利福平」研發成功，更使得結核病的療程由兩年縮短為半年，結核病早已不是致命的疾病。