HIV-1 has evolved into an astonishing 48 new strains

[Bob]

A recent article in the New Scientist says:

"Just a century after making the leap from chimpanzees to humans, HIV-1 has evolved into an astonishing 48 new strains..."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827893.100-60-seconds.html

But reading the abstract of the paper in the Lancet, I'm not quite sure if "48 recombinant forms of HIV-1" means that there are 48 'strains' of HIV-1. Can anyone get any clarity on this? I don't have access to the whole article, only the abstract.

The Lancet Infectious Diseases

Tracking a century of global expansion and evolution of HIV to drive understanding and to combat disease

1 December 2010

Abstract
...
The evolution of HIV-1 has been rapid, which has resulted in a complex classification, worldwide spread, and intermixing of strains; at least 48 circulating recombinant forms are currently identified. In addition to posing a nearly insurmountable challenge for diagnosis, treatment, vaccine development, and prevention, this extreme and divergent evolution has led to differences in virulence between HIV-1 groups, subtypes, or both.
...

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(10)70186-9/abstract

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21126914

 

[Cort]

Now that is one crazy virus.....I think this is what happens when a virus like this infects humans for the first time; it's really feeling its oats - adapting every which way to the human body.....What a pathogen it is!

 

[urbantravels]

As my scientist brother-in-law likes to say ... Studying viruses makes you REALLY believe in evolution.