BEIJING, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- A farmer in northeast China's Jilin Province has tested HIV negative, six years after receiving a positive HIV test result, the Beijing-based People's Daily reported on Monday.

    Wen Congcheng, a farmer living in Erdaogou Village in Chuanying District, Jilin City, got a negative result in the HIV/AIDS test he took in July at the No. 1 Clinical Hospital of Beihua University in Jilin City, the newspaper said.

    Wen tested positive in a test given in 2001 by the disease prevention and control center (CDC) of Chuanying District. The CDC was then testing blood-plasma donors.

    Late in 2003, he was re-confirmed to have HIV/AIDS as a result of another test, this one by the disease prevention and control authorities of Jilin Province.

    After learning of the negative test result in July, Wen went to the First Hospital of China Medical University and other three hospitals for HIV tests, which all proved to be negative.

    If all the negative test results are verified, Wen would be the first person in China to become free of HIV after having contracted it.

    In 2003, Andrew Stimpson, a 25-year-old Briton, claimed to have become clear of HIV 14 months after testing positive in May 2002. His claim remains suspect.

    "We cannot tell the reason why Wen Congcheng tested negative," the newspaper quoted Lang Ying, deputy-director of Chuanying CDC as saying.

    "I do not think that any drug has helped Wen to become clear of the virus," said Liu Baogui, an expert in HIV/AIDS with the CDC of Jilin City.

    The newspaper said that further research was needed to find out why Wen's HIV tests became negative.