The Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) and Open Airways will hold a World Asthma Day Fair today.

The event runs from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the lobby of King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

Asthma and allergy education will be available to anyone suffering from asthma or other breathing difficulties.

While hospital admissions from asthma-related incidents are decreasing, the Emergency Department at KEMH reported handling over 1,400 cases of asthma last year, half of whom were children.

"Asthma affects approximately 12 percent of our community," explained Debbie Barboza, Asthma Nurse Educator for the Asthma Education Centre at KEMH.

"Thousands of people suffer unnecessarily every day because of poorly controlled asthma. Yet people can control their disease and minimise incidents with proper diagnoses, education and treatment."

Although the prevalence of asthma is increasing in most countries, hospital admissions in Bermuda have decreased over 70 percent since 1995 because of aggressive education campaigns.

For more on asthma, see Body & Soul today