The suspension of many flights in and out of West Africa has made it difficult to get vital aid in to help fight against Ebola, Samaritan's Purse president Franklin Graham said this week.

Graham said he raised the issue at a meeting with White House officials this week, where he was accompanied by Dr Kent Brantly, the first person infected in the Ebola outbreak to be treated in the United States.

One Samaritan's Purse shipment of supplies has just been airlifted to Liberia and another is scheduled for next week, but Graham suggested there needed to be many more going to the Ebola-ravaged country.

Speaking on Fox News Channel's On the Record show after meeting US President Barack Obama, Graham said: "Airlines have quit flying. All of our supplies, we have to charter flights. We have a 747 going next week full of equipment and gear. I asked if we can have an air bridge. We need planes flying on a schedule every week that would carry cargo and carry health care workers."

Dr Brantly said he had spoken to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell about what kind of support was needed on the ground and that she had been "receptive to those conversations".

And asked whether he would go back to West Africa, he replied "I would", although he did not say whether this was something he was considering in the immediate future.

While the Obama administration has been accused by critics of being too slow in its response to the arrival of Ebola in the US, Graham said there was "no question" that the administration was being "aggressive on this issue".

"I think they would admit they are late on some of these issues, but they are focused on it now," he said, before adding that the "clock is ticking in West Africa".

"People are dying and they need help," he said.

The pair were at the White House on Wednesday along with other health workers involved in the treatment of Ebola sufferers.

Obama praised health care workers on the frontline of Ebola treatment as a "shining example" to the world.

"We need to call them what they are, which is American heroes," he said. "They deserve our gratitude and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect."

Samaritan's Purse has spearheaded a church-focused campaign in the last few months to educate nearly 6,000 religious leaders in West Africa about Ebola.

With medical centres being overwhelmed by the number of infections, the organisation has been training Liberians to run 10-bed facilities that provide basic supportive care, and offering interim home-based interventions while it constructs up to 15 new community care centres across the country.

Thousands of care kits containing items like protective clothing and disinfectant have also been distributed to help prevent transmission.