The CDC received so many calls from people concerned about Morgellons that it formed a task force to study it.

Newschannel 8's Laural Porter interviewed Dan Rutz from the CDC to find out where the task force work stands.

Here is part of her interview with Rutz.

Laural Porter:

Are there any preliminary findings?

Dan Rutz:

It's too early. The group is really starting from scratch. So, that meant coming up with a working definition that had to be carefully vetted among the several disciplines (represented on the task force).

Because our work is likely to involve human subjects, there are a number of ethical and legal hurdles that have to be overcome.

Porter:

Any idea when the task force will have a preliminary report ready?

Rutz:

I am not going to be pinned down. It's too hard to predict how science will unfold.

I can tell you that we are making progress in getting ready to get into the field to do this work.

Porter:

You mentioned human subjects. Tell me more about that.

Rutz:

We know people are suffering from something. People are complaining about this.

We want to talk to them and have our doctors examine them, if possible, to find out if there is anything

physiological that can be studied in a lab that might help us get some answers.

Porter:

So, the task force has not taken a position that illness known as Morgellons is likely the psychiatric disorder,

"Delusional Parasitosis"?

Rutz:

We are not drawing any conclusions yet. We think that because these complaints are fairly generalized, we think it's possible people come to this from different directions, and there could be different causes.

There certainly is a mental health component to this,as there is in many diseases.

We just don't know how important a role, and whether it applies to everyone is really a risky thing to speculate about.

Porter:

Do you have any idea what the fibers are?

Rutz:

None. We don't know. We haven't studied them in a lab yet.

We do have a pretty good idea that there is not an infectious process here. There is nothing to imply there is one, but our mind is open to everything, including that remote possibility.

Porter:

What would you like to say to people suffering with Morgellons symptoms?

Rutz:

What I think is important is for all of us to keep an open mind about this.

And that includes people with the medical complaint, it includes their practitioners and other medical providers, and to bring relief to their symptoms,and not worry whether we call it one thing or another.

They should be governed by what's wrong with them and what can be measured, relieved, and not worry about developing or concocting a new definition for something, in the event it doesn't turn out to be what think it is.