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(Adds Obama comments, paragraphs 2, 14-17)
By Bill Berkrot
NEW YORK, Oct 22 (Reuters) - U.S. health officials imposedfresh constraints on Wednesday on people entering the countryfrom three countries at the center of West Africa's Ebolaepidemic, mandating that they report their temperature daily andstay in touch with health authorities.
President Barack Obama expressed cautious optimism about thesituation in the United States after meeting with his Ebolaresponse coordinator, Ron Klain, and other top officials onKlain's first day on the job since being named on Friday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's newrestrictions on travelers arriving from Liberia, Sierra Leoneand Guinea marked the latest precautions put in place by theObama administration to stop the spread of the virus. The stepsstopped short of a ban on travelers from those countries demanded by some lawmakers.
The CDC said that, beginning on Monday, travelers from thosecountries will be directed to check in with health officialsevery day and report their temperatures and any Ebola symptomsfor 21 days, the period of incubation for the virus.
The travelers will be required to provide emails, phonenumbers and addresses for themselves and for a friend orrelative in the United States covering the 21 days, and theinformation will be shared with local health authorities.
The travelers also will be required to coordinate with localpublic health officials if they intend to travel within theUnited States. If a traveler does not report in, local healthofficials will take immediate steps to find the person.
CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden told reporters the activemonitoring program will remain in place until the outbreak inWest Africa is over. The U.N. World Health Organization's latestfigures on Wednesday showed at least 4,877 people out of 9,936cases have died in the outbreak, the worst on record.
"These new measures I'm announcing today will giveadditional levels of safety so that people who develop symptomsof Ebola are isolated early in the course of their illness,"Frieden said. "That will reduce the chance that Ebola willspread from an ill person through close contact and tohealthcare workers."
Beginning Wednesday, travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone orGuinea were being funneled through one of five major U.S.airports conducting increased screening for the virus.
There are no direct commercial flights to the United Statesfrom those countries, but officials say about 150 travelers aday arrive in the United States on trips that originated there.
Six states account for nearly 70 percent of all travelersarriving from the affected countries: New York, Pennsylvania,Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Georgia. The new monitoringwill begin in those states first and will be expanded to otherstates.
The CDC said the monitoring program affects anyone comingback from the region, including CDC employees and journalists.It said when affected travelers enter one of the five airportsthey will receive a care kit that contains a tracking log, apictorial description of symptoms, a thermometer, instructionson how to monitor their temperature and information on what todo if they experience symptoms.
Three Ebola cases have been diagnosed in the United States:Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian who fell ill after flying to theUnited States in September, and two nurses, Nina Pham and AmberVinson, who treated him at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital inDallas. Duncan died on Oct. 8, while the nurses are beingtreated at other facilities.
OBAMA SEES PROGRESS
Speaking in the White House Oval Office with Klain sittingon a couch beside him, Obama said the CDC would continue to putin place further measures to prevent the spread of Ebola asneeded.
"A number of things make us cautiously more optimistic aboutthe situation here in the United States," Obama said, notingthat dozens of people who interacted with Duncan did not getEbola.
Obama said officials were working to ensure that problemsthat arose with Ebola protocols at the Dallas hospital do notoccur again. He expressed confidence that any further Ebolapatients would get first-class treatment and said officialswould make sure hospitals are prepared and would take the rightprecautions.
On the situation in West Africa, Obama said, "We're alreadystarting to see some very modest signs of progress in Liberia.We're concerned about some spike in cases in Guinea."
Human testing of a second "investigational" Ebola vaccinehas begun at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's ClinicalCenter in Maryland, officials said.
The vaccine was developed at the Public Health Agency ofCanada's National Microbiology Laboratory and licensed toNewLink Genetics Corp through its wholly ownedsubsidiary BioProtection Systems, both based in Ames, Iowa, theNIH said.
Testing on a first potential vaccine began last month, andinitial data was expected by the end of the year.
NBC freelance cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, an American whocontracted Ebola while working in West Africa, is free of thevirus and was discharged on Wednesday from a special unit atNebraska Medical Center in Omaha, the hospital said.
"After enduring weeks where it was unclear whether I wouldsurvive, I'm walking out of the hospital on my own power, freefrom Ebola," Mukpo said in a statement.
"I feel profoundly blessed to be alive, and in the samebreath aware of the global inequalities that allowed me to beflown to an American hospital when so many Liberians die alonewith minimal care," Mukpo added.
The 1-year-old King Charles Spaniel belonging to Pham hastested free of the virus and will remain in isolation for theremainder of the 21-day monitoring period, the city of Dallassaid. (Additional reporting by Ben Hirschler in London, Will Dunhamand Susan Heavey in Washington, Barbara Goldberg in New York,Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago and David Bailey in Minneapolis;Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Michele Gershberg, GrantMcCool and Jonathan Oatis)
