Obama: US can't shy away from Ebola battle

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Washington - President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that the United States can't be seen as shying away from battle against Ebola and must support health care workers who are returning from the front lines in Africa.

Obama did not directly criticise quarantine policies for returning health care workers implemented in the states of New York and New Jersey, but he said monitoring of those who come back from the fight needs to prudent and "based in science".

"We don't want to discourage our health care workers from going to the front lines and dealing with this in an effective way," he said.

Obama said a robust response in Africa will stop the spread of the disease in the United States. He reminded Americans only two people have contracted the disease in the US and both are now disease-free.

The president spoke to reporters from the White House after a phone call with one of those patients, nurse Amber Vinson, just after her release from the hospital.

He also called a Usaid team deployed to West Africa and said he plans to meet on Wednesday with public health workers who have been there, or are planning to go, to talk about how public policy "can support the incredible heroism that they are showing".

"America cannot look like it is shying away because other people are watching what we do," Obama said.

"If we don't have robust international response in West Africa, then we are actually endangering ourselves here back home. In order to do that, we've got to make sure that those workers who are willing and able and dedicated to go over there in a really tough job, that they're applauded, thanked and supported.

"That should be our priority. And we can make sure that when they come back they are being monitored in a prudent fashion."

State policies

A hodgepodge of state policies, some of which directly contradict Obama's recommendations, has sowed confusion about what's needed to stop Ebola from spreading in the United States.

While public health advocates denounce state quarantines as draconian and scientifically baseless, anxious citizens in non-quarantine states are asking whether they're at greater risk because their governors and the president have adopted a lesser level of caution.

For the first time, the Centres for Disease Control on Monday recommended 21 days of isolation and travel restrictions for people at highest risk for Ebola - a nurse stuck by a needle while treating an Ebola patient in Guinea, for example - even if they have no symptoms. States are still free to go above and beyond the CDC guidelines.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease at the National Institutes of Health, defended the Washington policy on Tuesday, but said that states have a right "to go the extra mile" if they wish.

In an appearance on ABC television's Good Morning America, Fauci declined to criticise the more stringent quarantine policies implemented in New York and New Jersey by governors Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie. "'They're doing it in good faith."

David Fidler, who teaches international and public health law at Indiana University, said, "We have not seen for decades and decades the state or federal government say a whole category is going to be subjected to quarantines.

In fact, such broad quarantines are almost unheard of in US history. Almost always, they have been limited to diseases that are airborne and easy to catch. Public health experts say Ebola is neither.

When a flu pandemic dubbed the "Spanish Flu" infected millions in 1918, major US cities closed schools and imposed strict quarantines.

New York considered quarantining tuberculosis patients in the 1990s, and isolated some who wouldn't comply with treatment.