President Barack Obama on Tuesday was to make remarks at the White House on US efforts to aid in the fight against Ebola in West Africa.

Obama will make his remarks after speaking by phone to members of a US team dispatched to help combat Ebola, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.

The Americans were sent by the US Agency for International Development to try to help stem the spread of the often-deadly virus.

"He'll be convening a conference call with the members of the... team who are currently deployed to West Africa, responding to the Ebola outbreak in that region of the world," Earnest said.

"These are individuals who've been on the ground in West Africa since, I believe, the first week in August.

"They are responsible for coordinating the government's response to this Ebola situation, and the president's obviously very grateful for their service," the spokesman said.

"The president will be calling to offer his gratitude on behalf of the nation for their work."

In addition to the USAID workers, the United States has sent some 700 troops to West Africa to help in the fight against Ebola, and officials have said the number of soldiers could climb as high as 4,000.

Ebola virus more ancient than scientists previously thought
Buffalo, N.Y. (UPI) Oct 28, 2014 - Filoviruses, the virus family of which Ebola is a member, appeared between 16 and 23 million years ago, researchers from the University of Buffalo say, making the deadly virus currently ravaging West Africa much older than previously thought.

Most scientists believed Ebola and its relatives first appeared approximately 10,000 years ago. But a new analysis of the virus's genetic roots suggest both Ebola and the Marburg virus -- another deadly hemorrhagic fever virus -- share ancient evolutionary ties dating as far back as 23 million years ago.

The researchers were able to trace the evolutionary lines of the two viruses by analyzing genetic material left behind by the virus in animal fossils.

"Filoviruses are far more ancient than previously thought," lead study author Derek Taylor, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Buffalo, said in the press release. "These things have been interacting with mammals for a long time, several million years."

Most of the viruses' genetic markers were located in the bones of rodents, in particular voles and hamsters. The same genes were found in the same location, suggesting filoviruses have been around as long as the two rodent species have.

"These rodents have billions of base pairs in their genomes, so the odds of a viral gene inserting itself at the same position in different species at different times are very small," Taylor said. "It's likely that the insertion was present in the common ancestor of these rodents."

Though such research may not seem as vital as developing a new vaccine, scientists say there is still a lot we don't know about Ebola, and the more we know, they say, the better we may be able to combat it.

The research was detailed this week in the science journal PeerJ.