Obama warns against strict quarantines for Ebola workers

WASHINGTON - President Obama called for health-care workers returning from treating Ebola patients in West Africa to be treated as "the heroes that they are," amid continuing confusion and public anxiety over state health measures that call for some to be confined to their homes.

Obama's remarks Wednesday came as nurse Kaci Hickox threatened to challenge her quarantine in Maine and as Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel ordered that all U.S. troops who travel to Liberia to help build Ebola treatment centers be quarantined for 21 days afterward, even though the service members will not come into direct contact with Ebola patients.

Hagel's measure exceeds the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but Hagel noted that the troops are not volunteers and described the measure as a "safety valve."

There was a bit of cautious good news from the World Health Organization as an official said it appeared the rate of new cases in Liberia was declining for the first time.

Obama warned that there may be future cases in the United States and that the only way to bring the risk to zero is to contain the outbreak at its source, in West Africa.

"If we're not dealing with this problem there, it will come here," he said at the White House, joined by his Ebola response coordinator, Ron Klain, and sharing a stage with doctors and nurses who have been to West Africa, including Kent Brantly, who contracted Ebola but survived. "What we need right now is these shock troops who are out there leading globally."

Without naming any states, Obama warned against overly restrictive monitoring measures, saying: "If we're discouraging our health-care workers . . . from traveling to these places in need, then we're not doing our job in terms of looking after our own public health and safety."

The CDC issued revamped guidelines Monday, based on risk, for monitoring people who might have been exposed. The guidelines don't carry the force of law, however.

Federal officials have said they fear rigid state policies could deter health-care workers from serving in West Africa and create false stigmas. CDC officials say the virus is not nearly as contagious as the flu or the cold and that only someone with active symptoms can transmit the disease. The CDC guidelines call for workers who have come into direct contact with the bodily fluids or the dead body of an Ebola patient to avoid public transportation and crowded places and to submit to daily monitoring for symptoms.

For those at reduced risk, the agency recommended daily monitoring by health officials and travel restrictions on a case-by-case basis.

Obama noted that of the seven Americans treated for Ebola, all have survived. One - Craig Spencer - remains hospitalized in New York.

Polls suggest unease among many Americans, who overwhelmingly supported quarantine for travelers arriving from West Africa, according to a CBS News poll Wednesday.

Eighty percent think U.S. citizens and legal residents returning from the region should be quarantined upon their arrival in the U.S. until it is certain they don't have the virus. Just 17 percent of respondents said travelers should be allowed to enter the U.S. as long as they do not show symptoms.

How the Defense Department will implement its quarantine, which could apply to as many as 4,000 troops, was largely unanswered Wednesday, as Hagel gave officials 15 days to iron out details. Among the unanswered questions are: Where will the quarantines happen? Will troops making transit stops through Ebola-infected countries be subjected to the quarantine?

Their mission is to construct health-care facilities for patients, but they are not expected to come in contact with any. In an interview at the Washington Ideas Forum, Hagel said he made the order because the U.S. military will have more U.S. representatives on the ground in Liberia than any other government agency. And he said that the troops had not volunteered to go, unlike health-care workers who largely have.

He said the policy was discussed among military families who "very much wanted a safety valve."

The first team of soldiers to return from Liberia is under quarantine at an Army base in Vicenza, Italy. Among them are Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams, who led the team.

The department plans to review the order again in 45 days, said Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman.

At a news conference in Geneva, Bruce Aylward, WHO's assistant director-general in charge of the operational response, said the recent decline in new cases in Liberia "is real" and is confirmed not only by the scores of empty beds in many clinics, but also by a decrease in laboratory-confirmed cases and in burials.