Obama Announces Expansion of Anti- Ebola Efforts

President Obama on Tuesday announced a big expansion in the U.S. role in fighting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

As part of the plan, the U.S will send 3,000 troops, including engineers and medical personal to West Africa to help in the fight against the disease. It will also establish a regional command and control center in the Liberian capital, Monrovia. A staging area will also be started in Senegal to help  in the distribution of personnel  and aid, reports Reuters.

The plan also promises to build 17 treatment centers with 100 beds each and to train thousands of healthcare workers for duration of six months or longer.

Other measures include creation of an air bridge to bring health workers and supplies into affected countries faster and engaging U.S. Public Health Service workers in new field hospitals in Liberia.

Speaking after meeting officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Obama said that Ebola was a looming threat to global security and urged international organizations to increase their response to the disease in western Africa.

"The reality is that this epidemic is going to get worse before it gets better," Obama said at the Atlanta headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"But, right now, the world still has an opportunity to save countless lives. Right now, the world has the responsibility to act, to step up and to do more. The United States of America intends to do more," he added, reports Reuters.

Obama also talked about the agonizing situation of a family in Liberia.

A woman along with her children of 5 and 10 years respectively afflicted with the disease  reached a treatment centre, but could not get in. The children's father also had died of the disease, Obama said poignantly.

"These men and women and children are just sitting, waiting to die, right now." Obama said. "And it doesn't have to be this way," reports the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization praised the U.S effort in fighting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

"This massive ramp-up of support from the United States is precisely the kind of transformational change we need to get a grip on the outbreak and begin to turn it around," said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, reports AP.