I was on rifampin for only one week for a reason unrelated to Cpnⁱ.   Here is what I posted on the HHV-6 forum on June 9, 2010 with regard to rifampin:

Rifampin update~
I started a one week course of Rifampin on May 25th. One of the doctors I see, uses it to help eradicate enterovirus infectionsⁱ. Prior to using Rifampin I could walk on the treadmill at speeds starting at 2.8 mph, and working up to 3.2 mph. Since starting the Rifampin, my speed has been 2.6-2.7 mph, max. Basically, I'm below my previous starting speed.

Three days after starting the Rifampin, I got a headache and felt unwell enough to be horizontal much of the day. I could not join my family for a celebration dinner out at a restaurant (my son had graduated from high school that day). The next day I could only stand for 2 songs at church, and had to sit down after that. I have been able to stand for all the songs before.

My last day of Rifampin was on the 31st. On the June 1st I had tachycardia, then a very weird visual disturbance where "tadpoles" were nicely lined up in my visual field on the lateral side of each eye, and then they all swam to the medial side of my visual field. That happened twice. It was quite startling, as nothing like that had ever happened to me before. Shortly after that, I got quite ill, and went to bed, where I proceeded to get the chills. When I got up, I put on a fleece jacket for I was still cold, and I noted that it was 74 degrees in my home. The next couple of days I noted it was also 74 degrees in my home, and I did not need a fleece jacket, so something was certainly not right on the 1st.

I've had quite a few headaches the past 2 weeks, and 3 bouts of tachycardia. It seems my tachycardia is connected to either reactivation of pathogens, or die-off of pathogens....I had no tachycardia in March, 5x in April when it appears that some pathogens reactivated, once in May and now 3 times so far in June (likely due to taking the Rifampin).

Yesterday, my dreaded red alert symptom came back. That was 2 weeks after starting the Rifampin. Interestingly enough, it was also 2 weeks after doubling the acyclovir, that the red alert came back again too. I hope it doesn't last for 16-17 weeks like before.   I also had chills yesterday while sitting in a steam room!  I didn't trust my body to regulate it's temperature when that started happening, so I left.

It will be interesting to see if the Rifampin helps me in the long run. For now, I'm worse than I was, but that seems to always be the case whenever I start an antiviral or an antibiotic, so it was not unexpected that I might feel bad. 

In my mind, I think it was likely also killing off Cpn since I had such a strong reaction to it.  I hope to try that medication again sometime soon...maybe I'll discuss that when I see the doctors in the spring.

Best, Timaca