WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The mayor of New York said yesterday that a quarantined nurse had been “disrespected”, but gave no indication he would bow to White House pressure over the controversial move intended to stop the spread of Ebola in the United States.

Kaci Hickox, who became the first American health worker isolated under the new quarantine orders on Friday, claims she was made to feel like a criminal and that her compulsory quarantining was “inhumane”.

New York, New Jersey and Illinois have drafted in measures that see medics returning from West Africa — epicentre of the most deadly Ebola outbreak on record — quarantined for three weeks, while a fourth state, Florida, has ordered twice-daily monitoring during that period.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio attempted to quell the firestorm over Hickox’s outspoken remarks over the weekend, in which she hit out at the attitude of officials toward her from the moment she landed at Newark International Airport in New Jersey on Friday.

“This hero was treated with disrespect, was treated with a sense that she had done something wrong, when she hadn’t; was not given a clear direction,” de Blasio told a press conference.

“We owe her better than that and all the people better than that.”

Health authorities have also expressed concern that the strict new rules will discourage badly needed health workers from volunteering in the crisis in West Africa, where more than 4,900 people have already died of the haemorrhagic Ebola virus.

And US President Barack Obama’s Administration has urged the governors of New York and New Jersey to reverse the quarantine rules, The New York Times reported.

The Administration was consulting on a daily basis with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and his New Jersey counterpart Chris Christie to modify their orders, according to the report.

But de Blasio gave no hint he would support an easing of the restrictions, while railing at the treatment of Hickox — who has not tested positive for Ebola — and other health care professionals said to have been stigmatised after working with patients suffering from the disease.

On Thursday, 33-year-old doctor Craig Spencer became the first confirmed case of Ebola in New York, after returning from West Africa. He remains in a serious but stable condition in hospital.

“Anyone who has heard the nurse explain her situation in her proud, passionate, intelligent voice, knows that what happened to her is inappropriate,” said de Blasio.

There has been nine cases of Ebola in the United States so far, most among health workers who volunteered in Africa, with only one death.

Hickox, who was helping treat patients in hard-hit Sierra Leone before her return to the United States, has been isolated outside the main hospital building.

She has only been allowed to wear paper scrubs, and the tent is equipped with just a hospital bed, a non-flush chemical toilet and no shower.

On Saturday, she wrote a scathing assessment of her experience.

“I feel like my basic human rights have been violated,” she told CNN’s State of the Union show, insisting she was not contagious because she has shown no symptoms and tested negative for the disease.

“To put me in prison… is just inhumane.”

Some health experts have sided with Hickox.

“The best way to protect us is to stop (the outbreak) in Africa, and one of the best ways to stop it in Africa is to get health workers who are going there and helping them with their problem,” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci told CNN.