Banning travel from Ebola-stricken West African countries could keep the deadly virus from spreading in the United States, say critics of President Obama's claim that such a ban would only make the outbreak worse.
Travel bans are already working in several African countries, said Dr. Gerald Weissmann, a professor at the NYU Langone Medical Center.
"There are no cases now" in the countries where bans are in effect, he noted.
Obama restated his opposition Saturday, arguing a ban "would make it harder to move health workers and supplies back and forth" and cause people who might be carrying the disease "to evade screening and make the disease even harder to track."
"We can't just cut ourselves off from West Africa," he said in his weekly address.
He is under mounting pressure to impose a travel ban. Eighty-three lawmakers — 72 Republicans and 11 Democrats — favor a ban, The Hill Web site reported.
Obama should "deny entry" to people traveling from Ebola-stricken countries and impose "a period of quarantine" on those suspected of being exposed to the disease, said Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), a physician.
Weissmann noted that quarantines and travel bans helped curb cholera outbreaks in New York in the mid-19th century.
"We quarantined people when they came off ships that had cholera," he said. "We had tough quarantine laws and tough inspections" at entry points.
David Dausey, dean of the School of Health Professions and Public Health at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pa., also urged a travel ban.
"Common-sense epidemiology is that you keep sick people away from well people," he said.
Commercial airlines are ill-equipped to deal with the crisis, Dausey said. He believes commercial flights should end, with military flights and aid increased.
"If we do not do this now, we are going to lose this, and this disease is going to become something which is just as regular as HIV/AIDS," he said.
Jamaica and St. Lucia have banned travel from West Africa, and Haiti is no longer welcoming UN peacekeepers from Africa.
The White House next week will ask Congress for more money to fight the outbreak. Several GOP members have said they would support such a move.
In his address, Obama sought to reassure the public.
"I've met with an Ebola patient who recovered, right in the Oval Office," he said. "And I'm fine."
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