Joint Chiefs Chairman Urges 21

WASHINGTON - President Obama on Tuesday said that new Ebola guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were 'sensible, based in science' and would help keep Americans safe while not discouraging volunteers from traveling to West Africa to battle the disease at its source.

In a brief statement before boarding Marine One to head to a campaign rally in Wisconsin, Mr. Obama said: 'This disease can be contained. It will be defeated. Progress is possible, but we are going to have to stay vigilant.'

Of the aid workers who are in Africa, he said, 'They are doing God's work.'

The Obama administration has struggled to present a unified approach to dealing with those who return to the United States from the Ebola hot spots. That issue was complicated over the weekend when the governors of New York and New Jersey called for quarantines that federal officials say are not medically necessary.

And on Tuesday, White House officials tried to explain why the nation's top Army officer had ordered quarantines for soldiers in West Africa who have far less contact with Ebola patients than do civilian nurses and doctors in those countries who will not face quarantines under the C.D.C. guidelines.

Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said that it would be more efficient for the Army to simply isolate all of its returning soldiers rather than trying to assess which ones present greater risks for contracting Ebola.

'The men and women who are being deployed to West Africa are coming from military installations around the world,' Mr. Earnest said. 'And so for the sake of efficiency, there's an obvious benefit to restricting the movements of these individuals so that their health can be monitored consistent with scientific guidelines.'

Mr. Earnest also said that soldiers were used to inconveniences that were not asked of civilians, noting that members of the military accept the requirement that they have their hair shaved.

'The kinds of sacrifices that our men and women make in uniform range from very simple, elemental things like a haircut to more serious things like medical quarantine,' Mr. Earnest said. 'But the fact of the matter is, those are the kinds of things that have an impact on their day-to-day personal convenience, but yet they make those sacrifices for the benefit of the broader military.'

In his remarks, Mr. Obama defended the C.D.C. guidelines, saying they protect Americans at home while not unduly burdening health workers in Africa. He called the situation with members of the military 'different,' in part because they are not going to Africa voluntarily.

'We don't expect to have similar rules for our military as we do for the civilians,' Mr. Obama said.

The president's comments came after he participated in a conference call with members of the administration's team in Africa leading the relief effort there. Mr. Obama expressed confidence that the effort there was working to combat the disease, if only slowly.

'It's starting to have an impact,' Mr. Obama said of the international effort led by the United States. 'They are starting to see some progress in Liberia, and the infrastructure is beginning to get built out.'