05:32 PM EDT on Tuesday, June 7, 2005

Reported by: Kathryn Barrett

It's taken four and a half weeks for Shirley Taylor to be able to walk a short distance without feeling exhausted.

She first got sick around May 6. Taylor made a doctor's appointment, but three days later, when her temperature hit 103 degrees, her granddaughter took her straight to the hospital.

"They had me on oxygen. They had me on fluids because I was dehydrated and antibiotics,” she said.

Her diagnosis was pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria - she had Legionnaires’ disease.

She didn’t think much about how she got infected until she learned a co-worker Bonita Matta also had it. Matta was unconscious for nearly a week.

Taylor said that news scared her. "When I found out she had it, then I began to find out more about it and I realized how serious it was."

Both women are now recovering at home.

"It's just been horrible until recently, until the last week because I was so weak. I was dizzy. I didn't have any strength, no appetite," Taylor added.

Meanwhile, a handful of postal employees at the Church Street facility have had respiratory-type illnesses in the last few weeks.

On Wednesday, they’ll be tested to see if they have milder cases of the disease.

Postal officials have not heard the results of samples taken from throughout the building as they search for the source of the bacteria.

But new air conditioning units have been installed and drinking water is being provided because the old systems could harbor the bacteria.