New Delhi: Four districts in Odisha have achieved 85 per cent decline in malaria cases over five years through a model health intervention project that involved mass screening and comprehensive case management, the Indian Council of Medical Research said on Friday.

The ICMR, the country's apex health research agency, said the Comprehensive Case Management Programme (CCMP) had helped reduce malaria cases by 85 per cent in Angul, Dhenkanal, Balangir and Kandhamal districts between the period 2013-16 and 2016-17.

The programme has effectively turned Odisha into a "living laboratory for the study of improved malaria case management", Neena Valecha, director of the ICMR's National Institute of Malaria Research, said in a statement released on Friday.

The CCMP, launched in 2013, was aimed at early diagnosis and efficient management of malaria infections by classifying blocks in the four districts into pairs of intervention blocks where the new strategies were applied and "control" blocks where malaria control occurred without new interventions.

Project staff implemented the World Health Organisation's "test-treat-track" initiative that urges malaria-endemic countries to scale up diagnostic testing, treatment and surveillance for malaria.

The staff introduced mass screening leading to universal access to malaria diagnosis and treatment, improving the quality of services and surveillance.

"The learning experience from the CCMP has given rise to many innovative practices that were successfully implemented," Pramod Kumar Meherda, commissioner and secretary in Odisha's health and family welfare department said in a media release issued by the ICMR.

"We now need to sustain the gains to ensure our goals for elimination of malaria by 2027."

The project has given rise to an expanded initiative called Durgama Anchalare Malaria Nirakaran now under implementation in 22 districts.

ICMR officials said the most significant contribution of the CCMP has been the introduction of mass screening and treatment to patients in inaccessible areas.

The "best practices" from Odisha's CCMP programme have now been incorporated into the national vector borne disease control programme, said Madan Mohan Pradhan, a public health officer in Odisha.