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Why was chaulmoogra oil eventually replaced as a leprosy treatment?
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leprosy
The Gandhiji Prem Nivas is a center for people with leprosy that was established by Mother Teresa in 1958 and is run by the Missionaries of Charity in Titagarh, India.
Chaulmoogra oil was eventually replaced as a treatment for leprosy because it was largely ineffective and difficult for patients to tolerate. Specifically, the oil was not effective when applied locally, caused nausea when taken orally, and resulted in pain when administered via injection. Furthermore, its therapeutic value was never fully accepted by medical authorities.1
The oil was abandoned in the 1940s following the introduction of sulfones, which were the first truly effective drugs for the disease. The most notable of these, a medicinal form of diaminodiphenyl sulfone (DDS) known as dapsone, became the standard medication because it could be taken orally and proved to be significantly more effective than chaulmoogra oil.12