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DALLAS—A gay-rights group is protesting a 35-year prison sentence given to an HIV-positive man who was convicted of spitting on a police officer, and public health officials say the risk of contracting the AIDS virus from saliva is extremely low.

Prosecutors convinced a jury this week that the man’s spit constituted a deadly weapon, making the long prison term appropriate.

Willie Campbell spit into the eye and open mouth of a Dallas police officer while he was being arrested for public intoxication in 2006, the officer testified.

Campbell, 42, had been in prison twice before, making him a habitual offender subject to a sentence of at least 25 years.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says no one has ever contracted the AIDS virus from spit.

The Dallas County Health Department issued a statement Friday that said HIV is usually spread by sexual contact or sharing needles with an infected person or through a transfusion of tainted blood.