In 1960, the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) TB control and clinical research program was transferred to the CDC from the National Institutes of Health in Maryland. At this time, the CDC began a series of clinical trials of rifampin that helped establish the recommendations for 6 month short-course outpatient therapy for TB.

By comparison, TB patients in the early 1960s and before rifampin, had to endure treatment for 18-24 months, part of it in a hospital, and had to take an imposing total of over 600 doses of medication.