Numbers of asthma patients being admitted to hospital have been cut by nearly three quarters in Bermuda following a tireless awareness campaign from a charity group.

Open Airways has given special training to hundreds of healthcare professionals, held numerous presentations and rallied for a series of initiatives to tackle asthma rates over the past decade.

Now the group ? which is currently celebrating its tenth anniversary ? has announced figures showing admissions to hospital for asthma sufferers have plummeted 73 percent from 375 in 1993-94 to just 100 in 2005-06.

The reduction comes despite research showing conditions in Bermuda have led to an increasing number of people suffering from the illness.

Figures compare favourably with the US, where hospital admissions have risen in the same period, and the UK, where they have fallen by just 6.5 percent.

Open Airways founder Liz Boden ? a chronic asthma sufferer who came to the Island from London because she hoped it would improve her condition ? praised the group?s efforts.

?We are a very small charity helping a large number of people,? she said. ?We have seen the numbers of hospital admissions fall even though the number of people with asthma are rising.

?We like to think this is because we have got a good organised team of healthcare professionals.

?The figures here are better than the US or the UK and we believe that?s because Bermuda is a very special place.

?People talk to each other and help people when they cough, wheeze or mention asthma.

?Bermuda truly is another world and our staggering statistic of reducing admissions by 73 percent is being quoted at respiratory conferences around the world.?

In Bermuda, asthma affects one in four pre-school children, one in five to seven primary school children and one in ten adults.

The Island?s high humidity provides an ideal environment for potential allergic triggers including mould, mildew, dust-mites, cockroaches, plants, trees, grasses and flowers.

The high density of vehicles ? 52,000 in 24 square miles ? also causes considerable air pollution, while a large proportion of cars and trucks have diesel engines, which is proven to be a major irritant for people with asthma.

Open Airways has tackled the problem by training more than 200 healthcare professionals, to educate people on how to control asthma.

Around half these professionals have now left the Island, so the training programme is an ongoing project.

These professionals work throughout the Island in the community, at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, at schools, prison and in doctors? surgeries.

A further 1,000 healthcare professionals have attended one-day workshops, while further courses are provided in other breathing-related conditions.

The group played a key role in persuading Government to pass the bill which banned smoking in public places from last year.

Members also fought for an asthma education centre to be set up at the KEMH. It has now been operating seven years and has been hailed a success.

Last year, a school asthma nurse was hired to co-ordinate an Island-wide asthma education programme in schools.

Methods to help asthma sufferers include handing out equipment such as pillows and bedding with dust-mite covers and ?spacer? devices which ensure medication from inhalers gets into the patients? airways.

Looking forward to the future, Mrs. Boden said Open Airways still had much more work to do.

She said thousands of people still visit the hospital?s emergency department gasping for breath as a result of asthma.

To celebrate the group?s achievements in its first ten years, awards of excellence were handed out to a number of key players.

They were Ellen Baxter, Llinos Roe, Sheryl Martins, David Barber, Nicol Tear, Bernadette Wilson and Debbie Barboza.

They picked up their awards from Governor Sir John Vereker at a ceremony at Government House.

Congratulating Open Airways, Sir John said: ?It?s rare that you find something on the Island that?s so unanimously and universally regarded as a success story.

?I?m delighted to be associated with it and very pleased to help celebrate the tenth anniversary.?