President Obama said Tuesday that the health care workers fighting Ebola in West Africa are "doing God's work" and that the U.S. must ensure they are treated with respect when they come home because they are critical to stopping the disease at its source.

The policies for their treatment upon return to the U.S. must be "prudent" rather than "things that aren't based on science and best practices."

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While on the campaign trail, New Jersey governor Chris Christie defended his quarantine policy for medical workers returning from West Africa as ...

Mr. Obama's robust defense of health care workers came just days after a spat between the White House and the governors of New York and New Jersey, who had implemented mandatory quarantine policies for anyone returning from West Africa who had come into contact with Ebola patients. The first nurse, Kaci Hickox, complained publicly about being quarantined in a tent with no shower. She was later released to finish out her quarantine at her home in Maine after testing negative for the virus.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo appeared to soften the quarantine under public pressure, saying that health care workers could be quarantined at home and would be compensated by the state if their jobs did not pay them for the time off. Christie, however, has defended his state's treatment of the nurse.

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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took questions Monday on the decision to quarantine nurse Kaci Hickox in a Newark hospital. She did not show sympt...

But the Obama administration has warned that the mandatory quarantines aren't based on scientific principles and could discourage health care workers from going to fight the disease in West Africa, which is necessary to stop it at its source.

"America cannot look like it is shying away because other people are watching what we do. If we don't have a robust international response in West Africa, then we are actually endangering ourselves here back home," the president said Tuesday in his tenth statement on the disease in the past month. "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 get back they are being monitored in a prudent fashion."

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Obama: Health care workers fighting Ebola doing "God's work"