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Australia Bans Travelers from Ebola Hot Zone

CBN

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Australia is shutting its borders to citizens of the West African countries that have been hit the hardest by the Ebola outbreak.

The country's ban on visas from Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea comes as America's military is considering a quarantine for soldiers returning from an Ebola response mission.

Meanwhile, the debate continues on how to treat American healthcare workers returning from work in the Ebola hot zone.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued new guidelines for returning health care workers. But nine states have instituted stricter rules with some kind of quarantine.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama has repeatedly rejected the idea of tighter restrictions.

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

The World Health Organization now estimates at least 5,000 healthcare workers are needed in West Africa to battle the Ebola outbreak.

The U.S. State Department is considering allowing infected health care workers to come to the United States for treatment to encourage foreign doctors and nurses to continue working in the Ebola zone.

The only Ebola patient in the America is Dr. Craig Spencer, who remains in a New York hospital in serious, but stable condition.

Amber Vinson, the nurse infected while treating the man who died from the virus in Dallas, is now Ebola-free. She's now back at home after doctors discharged her from Atlanta's Emory University Hospital on Tuesday.

"While this is a day for celebration and gratitude, I ask that we not lose focus on the thousands of families who continue to labor under the burden of this disease in West Africa," Vinson told reporters at a news conference."

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