Viral hepatitis (HBV &HCV)one of the single most important cause of chronic liverdisease in Pakistan and World Wide is now spreadingbeyond endemic dimensions. Number of patients withhepatitis being received for elective and emergencyprocedures has increased tremendously. Thus healthcare providers especially operation theater staff hassignificantly increased risks of infectivity along withfurther transmission of the disease, if preoperativelyscreening and standard precautions are not followedstrictly. This makes the preoperative screening forhepatitis B & C one of the most important investigationsso that standard precautions can be taken to avoidfurther hazards of disease

Background: Chronic hepatitis C is a common entity which is frequently associated with depression. Aim: To determine the frequency of depression in patients of chronic hepatitis C who had not yet received treatment. Settings: Department of Gastroenterology and Medicine at Fatima Memorial Hospital Lahore, Pakistan. Study design: Cross sectional Descriptive study Methods: Total 217 patients were enrolled. Each patient was interviewed and then marked down by the doctor himself. Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ 9) (annexure 2 attached) was applied to determine the presence of depression. Depression was managed as per hospital protocol. The study was conducted from 10th April, 2018 to 9th October, 2018 Results: In this study mean age was 45 years with standard deviation ± 11.33. 62% patients were male, 38% patients were female. More over 57% patients had depression while 43% patients didn’t have depression. Conclusion: Our study concluded that there was a significant association between depression and chronic hepatitis C patients before they have started their treatment, in tertiary care hospital. Keywords: Depression, chronic, hepatitis C