Home HIV Test Altered Under State’s Pressure : Health: A Costa Mesa company begins advertising service on cable TV, but a technician will draw a blood sample, rather than relying on a finger prick.

After objections from state health officials, a local businessman who is marketing an at-home test for the virus that causes AIDS has revised his plans.

Stephen Coonan, president of Health Test Inc. in Costa Mesa, revamped his program to meet official objections raised this week. He began advertising his $44.95 test Tuesday on cable TV.

As originally proposed, Health Test would have allowed individuals to take their own finger-prick blood sample and mail it to a lab for analysis. The blood would be tested for presence of HIV, which causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Clinics and doctors commonly use the same procedure.

When the California Department of Health Services balked at the original idea, Coonan changed his plans and said he will send a technician to people’s homes to take the blood sample. That raises the proposed price of the service from $24.95 to $44.95.

“We no longer have issues with this device,” said Ozzie Schmidt, a supervising investigator with the state Department of Health Services.

He added, however, that “Coonan is aware of our department’s concerns about the lack of (post-test) counseling, and he is working towards meeting our threshold.”

The Food and Drug Administration and AIDS clinic officials have also criticized at-home testing for the virus. They see testing visits as chances to warn patients against risky behavior.

And the traumatic news of a positive HIV test requires face-to-face counseling, they said.

Coonan countered that people have a right to privacy, even if they are infected.

“Counseling is extremely judgmental,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “It’s none of our business what the public does, what a person’s lifestyle is.”

Negative test results would be mailed to customers, along with a warning that the HIV virus can take six months to appear in the bloodstream, so people may want to be tested again.

Positive results would be communicated by a doctor or social worker, Coonan said. But he is sketchy on how he would do that and what it would cost.

Health Test began advertising a toll-free telephone number Tuesday. “We’ve had calls, but I don’t know how many,” said Scott Crayton, a spokesman for Coonan.