Obama to announce plan to beat Ebola

US to deploy 3,000 US troops to afflicted African region and reallocate $500m for humanitarian mission.

The US defence department had requested to reallocate $500 million in funds for humanitarian mission [AFP]

The US is set to announce it will expand its response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa, with plans to deploy 3,000 troops and reallocate at least $500m in humanitarian budget. White House officials said that President Barack Obama would unveil on Tuesday the plan, which includes building of  treatment centres, training of thousands of healthcare workers and establishment of a military control centre for coordination. Obama, who has called the epidemic a national security crisis, has faced criticism for not doing more to check the outbreak, which the World Health Organisation said last week had killed more than 2,400 people out of 4,784 cases in West Africa. Infographic: Just how deadly is Ebola? Obama would also visit the US Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta in the US state of Georgia. The 3,000 military forces and a joint forces command centre would be established in Monrovia, capital of Liberia, to coordinate efforts with the US government and other international partners. The plan will "ensure that the entire international response effort is more effective and helps to scale up to turn the tide in this crisis", a senior administration official said on Monday. The treatment centres will have 100 beds each and be built as soon as possible, an official said. Hardest hit countries The US plan also focuses on training. A site will be established where military medical personnel will teach some 500 healthcare workers per week for six months or more how to provide care to Ebola patients, officials said. Guinea Ebola outbreak 'unprecedented' The WHO estimates that the hardest-hit countries - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - need at least three to four times the number of medical and public-health workers currently on the ground, or another 600 doctors to care for patients and 1,000 workers to track their contacts. Obama's administration has requested an additional $88m from Congress to fight Ebola, including $58m to speed production of an antiviral drug and two Ebola vaccine candidates. Officials said the Department of Defence had requested to reallocate $500m in funds from fiscal 2014 to help cover the costs of the humanitarian mission. The US aid agency would also support a programme to distribute protection kits with sanitisers and medical supplies to 400,000 vulnerable households in Liberia. Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN, on Monday called for an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Thursday, warning that the potential risk of the virus could "set the countries of West Africa back a generation". Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, was expected to brief the council along with Dr Margaret Chan, WHO chief, and Dr David Nabarro, the recently named UN coordinator to tackle the disease, as well as representatives from the affected countries