Writing in the journal Nature, University of Western Australia medical microbiologist Tim Inglis says irrational fear of the lethal virus ishampering Australia's ability to make a greater contribution to international efforts to combat the outbreak in west Africa.

The Abbott government is under pressure from Labor, the Greens, aid agencies and health groups to send personnel to Africa to back its financial contribution of $18 million. Prime Minister Tony Abbott has also said Australia is considering requests from the United States and Britain for personnel, made three weeks ago, but is continuing to seek assurances that any Australian workers who might contract the virus in west Africa would receive adequate treatment.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison announced on Monday that Australia had suspended its immigration program, including its humanitarian intake, from Ebola-affected countries, including Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

This followed a suspected case of Ebola in an 18-year-old west African woman who arrived in Queensland under a humanitarian program this month. The woman tested negative for Ebola.

Australian Medical Association president Brian Owler described the decision to close the border as "short-sighted".

"The best evidence is that that's not the best way to control the disease. People need to understand that even in Liberia and Sierra Leone, there are precautions that are already in place. You can't get on a flight out of Monrovia or out of Freetown without having your temperature taken about four times ... you cannot leave those countries if you are showing any sign of the disease, or people feel that you are at risk, so closing the borders of those countries is not the answer."

Writing in Nature, Professor Inglis says the current threat to Australia from a few imported cases of Ebola is low.

"The real issue is that the threat to Australia, the US and other developed countries will be much higher in six months. The best defence is to act now and in Africa," he writes.

Professor Inglis and his colleagues are preparing to travel to west Africa to operate a mobile laboratory to diagnose cases of the disease at the fringes of the outbreak.

Ebola has already infected about 10,000 people in west Africa and claimed almost 5000 lives.

The United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimate the number of Ebola cases in Sierra Leone and Liberia is doubling every 20 days, and by January could reach 1.4 million cases on present trends

Touring Ebola-hit nations this week, US ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said too many world leaders were praising the efforts of others while doing little themselves.

"You have countries at the United Nations where I work every day who are signing on to resolutions and praising the good work that the United States and the United Kingdom and others are doing. But they themselves haven't taken the responsibility yet to send docs, to send beds, to send the reasonable amount of money," she told NBC.