As the U.S. continues to face its worst measles outbreak in three decades, another country that has struggled with measles offers a telling case study: the eastern European nation of Romania.

While most countries hardest hit by measles are lower-income countries in the Global South, wealthier countries have also seen significant outbreaks. Romania is one of them. The country ranked fifth on the measles outbreak list last year, reporting 30,692 cases and 23 deaths .

According to Dr. Aurora Stanescu, an epidemiologist at the National Institute for Public Health in Romania, five of those deaths were children under age 1.

Schwalbe calls those figures a "wake-up call."

"That's a lot of cases of measles, and that's a lot of deaths from a disease that really shouldn't be killing a

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