Health systems in Sub-Saharan Africa lack biomedical personnel and have rudimentary surveillance systems to address health emergencies. Lack of communication infrastructure delays the detection and response to epidemics. The initial responses to epidemics such as the West Africa Ebola outbreak tended to have a biomedical approach with little consideration of local communities and their communication infrastructure. The flow of communication tended to be top down and one directional, from the West to the local communities, rather than multi-directional exchange of knowledge. The biomedical personnel had little understanding of the local culture, illness beliefs and health seeking behavior, historical context burial process, and modes of communication in the rural areas. The one directional communication flow resulted in lack of trust and misinformation. Furthermore, anthropologists who could help communicate with the local communities were not utilized at the beginning of the epidemic. This paper examines the following: 1) initial Ebola preventative measures/messages and reaction by communities; 2) social mobilization to reach new audiences; 3) multi-faceted communication approaches including plays, mobile cinema, etc. utilized to reach the local communities; 4) use of local interlocutors such as religious leaders to reach the communities; 5) use of traditional healers, community, religious leaders and SMS Text to deliver health information to health officials; and 6) development of interdisciplinary teams to address health emergencies. Culturally creative communication and interdisciplinary teams may result in more effective and culturally sensitive interventions to address health emergencies.