Experts believe that stricter quarantine measures may discourage medical workers from joining the battle against the disease in West Africa, adding more strain to the already-tough battle against the epidemic.

Several states in the U.S. including New York, New Jersey, and Illinois recently announced stricter Ebola-quarantine policies, especially for medical workers arriving from West African countries who had recently come in contact with Ebola patients.

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This year's outbreak of Ebola has been deemed the largest in history with almost 5,000 out of 10,000 people infected with the virus and already succumbing to death.

The move, however, received criticisms from some experts who described it as "politically obvious" which may as well be "counterproductive."

"If people are forced to quarantine for three weeks that means most of them will not be able to do any sort of work and that means essentially lost income," Columbia University Epidemiology Professor Stephen Morse explained to USA Today.

Morse also said that the mandatory quarantines may impede people with symptoms of the disease from "coming out" due to the increased stigma surrounding the disease.

Meanwhile, Emergency Medicine Physician Robert Glatter from Lenox Hill Hospital appealed to the state officials to "rethink" the restrictions and consider using dealing with the Ebola crisis "with science and reason."

Glatter believed that such strict regulations will "discourage health care workers from going out to the source" where they are most needed.

A perfect example of which is Kaci Hickox's case. She is a health care worker who recently returned from West Africa after treating those with Ebola. However, she had been reportedly treated unfairly upon her arrival at a Newark, New Jersey airport.

In a first-person account of the incident published in the Dallas Morning News, Hickox recalled how she was treated after arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport on Friday and how she feared that the incident will be repeated for other medical workers arriving in the U.S.

"I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganization, fear and, most frightening, quarantine," she wrote.

On Saturday, Hickox's test results revealed that she is Ebola-free.

Tagsquarantine, Ebola volunteers, outbreak, medical workers, Illinois, New Jersey