Schistosomiasis is a waterborne tropical disease caused by infection with parasitic worms of the Schistosoma genus resulting in significant morbidity in the Middle East, South America, Southeast Asia and, mostly, in sub-Saharan Africa. For over 30 decades, this disease has been on a gradual rise, claiming thousands of lives and disfiguring its sufferers. Currently, over 280 000 mortalities per annum are attributed to this disease, with about 207 million reported cases of infection worldwide. In addition to these overwhelming statistics, infection caused by S. haematobium has been reported to predispose its sufferers to cancer of the bladder. Bladder cancer is regarded as the most common type of cancer in the urinary system, with relatively high incidence, progression and mortality rates despite the efforts put into providing optimal treatment for the disease. Despite the diagnostic and treatment options already put into place, there is still a growing need to develop alternative strategies to combat these diseases. The high expression levels of a group of molecular chaperones, known as heat shock proteins, can be used as biomarkers of infection and can consequently play a role in the development of alternative treatment methods.

血吸虫病是一种水传播的热带疾病，由血吸虫属寄生虫感染引起，在中东、南美、东南亚以及主要在撒哈拉以南非洲地区发病率很高。30 多年来，这种疾病一直在逐渐上升，夺去了数千人的生命并毁坏了患者的容貌。目前，每年有超过 280 000 人死于这种疾病，全世界报告的感染病例约为 2.07 亿。除了这些压倒性的统计数据之外，据报道，由 S. haematobium 引起的感染使其患者易患膀胱癌。膀胱癌被认为是泌尿系统最常见的癌症类型，发病率相对较高，尽管努力为该疾病提供最佳治疗，但进展和死亡率仍然很高。尽管诊断和治疗方案已经到位，但仍然越来越需要制定替代策略来对抗这些疾病。一组被称为热休克蛋白的分子伴侣的高表达水平可以用作感染的生物标志物，因此可以在替代治疗方法的开发中发挥作用。