The burdens of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are increasing in Africa. T2D and CVD are the result of the complex interaction between inherited characteristics, lifestyle, and environmental factors. The epidemic of obesity is largely behind the exploding global incidence of T2D. However, not all obese individuals develop diabetes and positive family history is a powerful risk factor for diabetes and CVD. Recent implementations of high throughput genotyping and sequencing approaches have advanced our understanding of the genetic basis of diabetes and CVD by identifying several genomic loci that were not previously linked to the pathobiology of these diseases. However, African populations have not been adequately represented in these global genomic efforts. Here, we summarize the state of knowledge of the genetic epidemiology of T2D and CVD in Africa and highlight new genomic initiatives that promise to inform disease etiology, public health and clinical medicine in Africa.

中文翻译：

---

非洲 2 型糖尿病和心血管疾病的遗传流行病学。

在非洲，2 型糖尿病 (T2D) 和心血管疾病 (CVD) 的负担正在增加。T2D 和 CVD 是遗传特征、生活方式和环境因素之间复杂相互作用的结果。肥胖症的流行在很大程度上是 T2D 全球发病率激增的原因。然而，并非所有肥胖者都会患上糖尿病，阳性家族史是糖尿病和 CVD 的重要危险因素。高通量基因分型和测序方法的最新实施通过识别以前与这些疾病的病理生物学无关的几个基因组位点，提高了我们对糖尿病和 CVD 遗传基础的理解。然而，在这些全球基因组工作中，非洲人口并没有得到充分的代表。这里，