At a press conference held yesterday, Manushak Minasyan, Head of the NKR’s National Statistical Service, stated that during the months of January to September 2008 the birth rate rose in the country by 11.9% over the same period last year and that the death rate also rose by 5.8%. 22% of reported deaths were of individuals over the age of 85 and 19% occurred within the 80-84 age group. Most of the deaths were due to cardio-vascular and other heart-related illnesses. The findings also reported a rise in infant deaths as well with 26 deaths of children under the age of one and 5 deaths in the 1-5 age range. Recently NKR Prime Minister Arayik Harutyunyan commented on the rise in the death rate when he spoke to health workers and stated that, “In the NKR much more is spent per one patient than in Armenia and many European countries. The government will continue to invest more resources in the health field but we still haven’t seen corresponding results.”