A court decision to sentence an HIV-positive man who spit at a police officer to 35 years in prison last week raised protests amid activists of a gay-rights group who said the verdict could create wrong impressions about how HIV is transmitted.

Back in 2006, Willie Campbell, 42, of Dallas, spit in the face of Officer Dan Waller, who was arresting him for public intoxication, prosecutor said, the local newspaper Dallas Morning News reported last week. Campbell also spit at two other officers.

The court found him guilty of harassment of a public servant and sentenced him to 35 years in prison. The jury decided his saliva was like a deadly weapon. Campbell will have to spend half of his sentence in prison before becoming eligible for parole.

Following this decision, Bebe Anderson, the HIV projects director at Lambda Legal, a gay-rights group said the verdict could be understood the wrong way, as it could create wrong impressions about how HIV is transmitted.

“It’s been 25 years since the virus was identified, but there are still lots of fears. We are still facing people losing their jobs and fighting for their children because of fears that are unfounded,” he said as quoted by the Houston Chronicle.

Also, the Dallas County Health Department released a statement on Friday saying HIV is usually spread by sexual contact or sharing needles with an infected person or through a transfusion of tainted blood and not through saliva or tears.

Moreover, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says “contact with saliva, tears or sweat has never been shown to result in transmission of HIV.”