Some wear lab coats, like DAP Health Director of Specialty Programs Dr. Jason Halperin, who’s devoted his life to HIV/AIDS care.

Words by Kay Kudukis

You’re anxious. You had an evening of fun where you weren’t as careful as you usually are. Or maybe you have some disturbing symptoms, and you’re afraid of the diagnosis. But what DAP Health Director of Specialty Program Dr. Jason Halperin — the board-certified internal medicine- and infectious disease-trained physician who works at both Stonewall Medical Center in Cathedral City and Centro Medico Escondido on the San Diego Coast — wants you to know is that an HIV diagnosis is not what it was in the 20th century.

“When someone is newly diagnosed, the only thing they’re thinking is, ‘I can’t love someone,’ because they’re terrified they’re going to transmit the virus to them,” Halperin says. “The most important conversation I have with them starts with, ‘Once you’re on medication, you cannot transmit the virus.’”

Not only that. Halperin says, on medication, HIV patients are living even longer than normal life spans. There’s also post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) prevention for HIV — a course of pills you take after a worrisome encounter that are like Plan B. Unfortunately, not enough people know.

Halperin is incredibly smart, but he’s also a warm and caring communicator. He’s immovably passionate about what he does, and possibly most surprisingly, he’s a straight married man with kids who’s been on a mission to eradicate HIV/AIDS since he was 9 years old. 9! His call to action came when his family moved from New York to Florida, and the man who sold them their home died of complications from AIDS. Young Halperin knew he had to do something.

Heavily involved with ACT-UP since high school, as well as during his time at Columbia University in New York City, Halperin added Doctors Without Borders to his volunteer work while earning a degree in philosophy with an eye toward HIV/AIDS law.

One night, in a pub, his friends convinced him he was born to be an infectious disease physician. He was iffy; he’d been told multiple times in high school that his math and science weren’t up to snuff for him to become a scientist. But his gut told him that his friends were right.

He graduated from Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont in 2010. And although he left the legal world academically, he still studies the legislature and is involved in making these medications more accessible.

Not all brains and passion, Halperin is wildly approachable, and incredibly charming. Talking to him is like a big, warm, friendly hug. And because HIV doesn’t just affect the gay population or intravenous users, he also treats women, and children born with HIV, at Stonewall, where he sees patients on Mondays and Tuesdays. He does the same at Escondido Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. He always offers upbeat, safe, and comfortable care for all of his patients’ medical needs.

Halperin says there’s nothing but good medical news in the HIV world. “We have every tool to end the epidemic,” he says emphatically. “We have medications that 100% prevent HIV. We have to screen everyone, put everyone who’s negative on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and put everyone who’s positive on antiretroviral therapy ASAP, because once you’re on medicine, you can’t transmit the virus at all. That’s at all! That’s called U equals U, or undetectable equals untransmittable.”

Somebody really should get this man a cape.

To become a patient of Dr. Halperin at DAP Health’s Stonewall Medical Center in Cathedral City, or at Centro Medico Escondido in Escondido, please click here.