DHAKA: President Obama on Tuesday will announce an expansion of a $763 million US plan to help West Africa nations fight the spread of the Ebola virus, officials said.

Adding to an existing project, the project calls for more doctors and health care providers, more portable hospitals laboratories, and medical supplies and increased training for first responders and other medical officials, reports usatoday.

The total cost of the program is estimated at $763 million, officials said, including $175 million that has already been dedicated.

The administration has asked Congress for an additional $88 million for the anti-Ebola program, officials said. And the Department of Defense, which is heading up the program, has requested the re-programming of $500 million.

Obama plans to discuss the program during a visit Tuesday to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Senior administration officials described the program on the condition they not be named so as not to pre-empt the president's announcement.

The Department of Defense will work with the United States Agency for International Development and the Centers for Disease Control.

About 3,000 US military personnel will be in West Africa to lead the project, officials said.

While declining to discuss the plan in detail, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama believes that “making an investment here early is critical to trying to snuff out this problem before it becomes a much more widespread problem.”

BDST: 1110 HRS, SEP 16, 2014