I can smell viruses

I’m not sure why I’ve never told anyone this before, but I can smell when someone is sick with a virus. I’ve heard about people being able to smell other things like Parkinson’s, diabetes, etc, but I seem to only smell viruses like covid, flu, rsv, etc. I love having lots of personal space so I never usually get close enough to smell it on other people, but I’ve caught it a few times on friends & family before they even knew they were sick.

It’s a really weird, distinct smell. It’s almost like a rotting meat smell, as gross as that sounds. I can always sense it specifically in my upper nose, and when the virus is starting to leave the body it smells even more decayed and bitter almost. I didn’t put it together until about 5 years ago and I just haven’t told anyone because I didn’t wanna make them feel weird or self conscious about being sick.