WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that health workers volunteering to help treat Ebola patients in West Africa should be applauded and he warned that government quarantine policies should not discourage their work needed to help contain the disease.

Obama spoke for the first time since governors in New York and New Jersey ordered the quarantining of health workers returning from West Africa, rules that goes beyond federal guidelines.

He said U.S. officials need to be guided by science rather than fears.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Steve Holland; Editing by Sandra Maler)